Task 3b: Theories Relating to Networking

The Extract from Axelrod, R and his theory up on the Game ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ is something I have never considered, Prisoner's Dilemma Game. At first, I didn’t understand the link as I either kept winning, or I would equal the ‘other player.’ After reading on I realized that, that was the whole point. In every day life, we have to think about wether we want to cooperate, disagree or exploit the other person/people we are conversing with, ‘When should a person cooperate, and when should a person be selfish, in an ongoing interaction with another person.?’ I can think of many different situations where this has happened to me, for example, at work when someone called in sick, I was asked by my manager to stay later and close the bar, say I was busy, I could have refused and not stayed but instead I ‘cooperated’ with him and agreed to stay later. Say it had been someone I didn’t like and didn’t want to work with, I probably would have refused.

This connects with ‘Affiliation,’ as humans with personalities, we tend to connect with some people better than others, it’s normally not anything personal, its just a clash of our different personalities. Hofstede (1980) proposes that this may also vary between different cultures. I agree with this, as a little while ago I got spat on by an Asian man. I was just sat listening to my iPod while waiting for the train to come, and because it was a hot day, I was wearing a skirt. This obviously offended him, enough for him to spit on me. In his culture, this is accepted by women, but after I confronted him he backed down, not enough to apologize but enough to walk away from me. Unknowingly, this showed me that clearly we did not cooperate in the way I dressed and that he was out to exploit me as being something I am not. If we were in the same profession, this clearly shows, that as we have different acceptances, we would have no cooperated, and therefore not become networked in a positive manor.

Larson, Csikszentmihalyi and Grief (l982) say that ‘adolescents spent about 75 per cent of their waking time with other people’ and that with teens, they are a lot happier when socially active. This is something I can totally agree with. Whilst working hard doing this course and then doing my Bar work, I haven’t seen my friends in a social situation for a few weeks. To any working adult, they would probably say ‘thats life’ but I know I work harder and can keep up with my work after a night out with friends, or just a phone call. Having that interaction and connection with other people, I believe is crucial, as it is a way to relax and reflect on whats happening with your life. Gunnar (2000) also links children raised in an orphanage with the inability to cope with stress. Clearly the lack of love and interaction cause’s them to think they have to deal with everything them selves instead of letting out their feelings.

Altman (1975) altercates that our levels of privacy (as apposed to sociability) can waver over time, even in the space of a few hours. I can connect with this as one minute I can be really enjoying a class, and say someone takes my place in the mirror, I will be less willing to be cooperative with that person in the future. Optimization is another social interaction technique we use, this is where we will try and coordinate our chosen level of contact with our actual level of contact within the social situations. Say you are being interviewed and there are too many people asking questions, you will feel crowded and there for want to move away, or if you are home along, you feel isolated and that no-one is thinking about you. These different processes of thought are subjective to the different situations we are in and the moods we may be at that given time. I know that when I was at college, sometimes sitting in the over crowed ‘Common Room’ wasn’t for me, so I would try and find somewhere quieter to think or speak to someone. These different levels of contact happen to us all the time and going back to cooperation, it is wether or not we are in the right mood to accept or refuse the situation.

Social Constuctionism to me is something I feel very strongly on. It explains that humans create meanings of the world through unique and individual experience and I think this is true. What I connect a word with may be completely different to someone else, but that is only because of the different experiences we have had. Often finding someone with the same experiences leads to social connection and stronger networking, this is the reason why we connect with some people better than others.

Connectivism is something I don’t really understand, I talks about learning and the networks in a system in which we can interact to learn...but isn’t that was networking is all about? Being able to learn and evolve from different people and being to grow ourselves in order to teach and inform others on our knowledge? Gonzalez (2004) says that the knowlegde of what is known is doubling every 18th months which is making things obsolete. Clearly if things are becoming more advanced, that is a good thing, we don’t need to keep hold of the ‘out of date’ theories or technologies, when we have the resources to carry on making improvements.

Gredler (2001) also brings up a good theory upon learning, these are the three beliefs;
Observable behaviour is more important than understanding internal activities
Behaviour should be focused on simple elements: specific stimuli and responses
Learning is about behaviour change
All these show that learning is more about how someone reacts and improves, making sure they understand, than about the amount of knowledge told. This show how far we have come in terms of accepting the different ways in which people learn and process different information. The way you are taught at school or college can have a massive impact on your social abilities. As I was bullied, I know I used to find it hard to be friends with people, but due to help and more interaction within Dance, I was able to be more confident and therefore more able to network.

Communities of Practice, I feel, are a great way to socially bond with people. There are so many different types of communities. For example, my mum is in a rowing team, this is then connected to the county team, which compete against the world and she now has connections in Holland, where the world championships is held every year. The fact that we can network with people across the world through advanced technology makes it all worth while. People from all different backgrounds can communicate and keep in contact with each other over the internet.