7 Social Networks for Soccer Players...

Soccer brings people together. After all, it is called "joga bonita" or "the beautiful game" for many reasons. I play for the Cornell Women's Club Soccer team, a group of twenty-three individuals brought together by our love of this beautiful game. Haythornthwaite's social network analysis examines the relationships of communities and the individuals that make them up. The soccer team's community has many social network analysis properties. Haythornthwaite would consider the team in a "Gemeinschaft" or "community view" because the team makes up a very utopic community. We exist in a successul community that is made of of strong interpersonal ties since we see each other so often and have the chance to become close with one another on many different levels. We share lots of face to face interaction through practices, games, road trips and relaxing with one another. The team unites to have one common purpose in having a successful season (so far so good, even though we lost in the Regional final this past weekend). Basically, everyone on the team is connected at all times, providing a very utopic, strong community.

However, even though everyone on the team is friends, there tends to be a mixture of strong and weak ties. While we see each other often, most of us have other "main" groups of friends outside of the team, providing connections to unique resources and vast social networks. While this "strength of weak ties" idea relates to some groups of girls within the team, there certainly are other vert strong ties that we all have to people on the team. There are girls that I am extremely close with, yet we do not have the same friends outside of soccer. This interchangeability of strong and weak ties is interesting because even though Haythornthwaite would consider my close friendships a "strong" tie, she would also consider these relationships "weak" in that each of us has separate social networks outside of the team.

Being on a team that has a unified goal proves Haythornthwaite's common ground principle in my community. The Gemeinschaft" view itself specifically states that shared focus and a common purpose are necessary in order to have a community view. The word "team" denotes that a shared goal is present in the first place. We all look to work as hard as possible everyday in practice in order to win as many games as possible. This past weekend, during the Region 1 tournament in Philadelphia, our common ground was the goal of winning the tournament. While we reached the finals and lost in penalty kicks, everyone still felt extremely happy about how we played. Since we all have a common interest in the success of the team, it was easy to develop friendships with these girls because we feel similar to one another. There is a shared commitment involved in creating a successful community.

Because most of the ties I have developed with the girls on the team have been strong, there is an innate sense of reciprocity since we are all there for one another on a daily basis. We stick up for each other when someone on another team decides to hurt one of our players or backtalk to us. We are there to support one another. Reciprocity also comes in the form of how each person shows their dedication for the team. Now that we have entered the most important part of our season, playing time may no longer be equal. Those who show the most dedication and effort will be reciprocated with the most playing time.

CMC does play a large role in the soccer team. We have a website, where we each have pictures and information about us, as well as team photos, schedules, and lots of other interesting informaiton (check it out! http://www.rso.cornell.edu/cornellfc/ ). We email on a daily basis to communicate about schedule changes, practice information, who is driving to games, and any other information such as social events. We also have a group on Facebook. So CMC plays an integral role in how the team communicates on a daily basis. Etzioni and Etzioni say that, "communities that combine both face to face and CMC systems would be able to bond better and share values more effectively than communities that rely upon only one or the other mode of communication." It is evident that CMC in addition to face to face interaction gives the team a better sense of community. It is also said that communities with strong ties tend to use more media to communicate, proving that CMC only helps to enhance community relationships rather than downplay them. This is definitely true in terms of the Cornell Women's Club Soccer Team. Ahh...what a "joga bonita"!

http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/10/71-gemeinshaft-must-have-been-greek.html
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-7-option-1-taking-catherwood.html