Looking Into an Ego Network by James Cook

Vega's ego network

2015-10-01 01:12:25 UTC

This network is one that surrounds me now. My ego network is based on my closest friendshiprelationships. All of the friends that I chose are female (as the large majority of my closest friendships are). The attributes that I considered were that of age and education level. Those who are aged 30-40 are labeled with a circle. Those who are aged 40-50 are labeled with a square. I have used a tooltip to label the level of education for each node.

I think my ego network is characterized by homophily because most of these actors have formed friendships based on similar personalities. The organizational setting here does not matter. The friendships came first; and from there plans were made, organizations or clubs are joined and hobbies are shared. The ties in this network formed by different means. Many are childhood friends, a couple are co-workers, a couple are siblings and the rest of friends that I have managed to seek out because of similar interests and personality. You’ll notice that my ties are in different colors – the blue refer to relationships that were formed before or outside of my parenting responsibility and the pink are ones that formed as a result of my parenting responsibility. The 3 pink friends that are friendships that were formed as a result of having children who play together were induced by circumstance.

The number of ties where the ego and alters share the same age group (30-40): 9 out of a possible 16 (or 56% - less than 1) so I believe that indicates that only a portion of the ties are homiphilous.

The number of ties where the ego and alters share the same level of education (associates degree):

3 out of a possible 16 (or 19%- less than 1) so I believe that indicates that only a portion of the ties are homiphilous.)

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Vega, thanks for being the first to post. That always takes a lot of bravery.

What you have here is a Level 1.0 ego network, which occurs when no data on ties between alters is collected. It's not just similar personality, and age, but SAME GENDER, that leads me to agree with you that this is a homophilous network! Your social network is 100% female in a society that is roughly 52% female.

It's also really nice to hear you refer to the circumstances of your structure that lead to formation of social ties. Work and the parenting social sphere are places that lead us to make connections to other people.

Best,

Prof. Cook

Scorpius 2.0 Ego Network

2015-10-01 15:25:22 UTC

This 2.0 ego network depicted is of my most current tabletop role-playing game group (circa last year). Any friends or acquaintances not in that group are not included.

The ties between the nodes represent strong friendships outside of the group.

Blue labels represent the node being male.

Red labels represent the node being female.

Circles: 18-20 years old

Triangles: 21-25 years old

Squares: 26-30 years old

Diamonds: 31-35 years old

Judging by this graph, gender-wise my immediate ego network would be classified as induced homophily because the split is almost even between the amount of close male friends and female friends (3 close female friends out of 4 and 2 close male friends out of 4). The same goes with age groups with five friends in the 21-25 category, and a single node in the remaining three categories. Four of my ties are 21-25 and one tie is 18-20 which easily falls into the chance for the triangle category, and so even though I myself am not in that specific category it makes sense under the rules for induced homophily that that is where my close ties lie (if choice, there would be a tie between myself and Sarah, the only other square node).

Stepping away from the graph, I would still say that this induced homophily because, other than the fact that we are all together because of a common interest, the gender split comes primarily from friends having significant others and/or roommates that became involved in the game and the overwhelming 21-25 category coming from my staying back a grade in school and being the oldest student where many of these bonds were initially forged (prime example of induced homophily). The only outlier in this graph is Casey for being both female and in the 13-20 year old category and no additional ties to anybody else but me – she was a coworker.

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Thanks for contributing, Scorpius! I'd say that this is actually a Level 2.5 Ego network due to the tie between Cody and Sarah.

Level 1.0: Just ties from ego (you) to alters.

Level 1.5: Add ties between alters.

Level 2.0: Add ties from ego's alters to their own alters.

Level 2.5: Add ties between alters' alters.

You have a good description of what a tie means, and I like your color and shape coding, too.

I miss role playing! Since graduate school got me busy 20 years ago, I haven't returned to the table.

Best,

Prof. Cook

Lyra

2015-10-01 17:57:16 UTC

I couldn’t come up with a network based on age, religion, or even sex. So decided to make a network based on the amount of time I spend with certain people. This current network represents the people I most frequently surround myself with. Those who share a color (blue, black…) represent our group: in other words, when I hang out with Kacy, Scott and John are also present. This is true of my friends Lucy and Ethel. Also, the width represents those who I spend most of my time with. Green and blue represents the most while Willow, Riley and Zeppelin are the least, but when we are together we are all together.

This assignment was challenging for me. The old saying, “I keep my circle small” kept running through my head as I attempted and failed to create a network, which is how I ended up with this one. I feel as though my network is not specific to either heterophily or homophily and the reason is because these groups of people are all vastly different. While Jolene, Kacy, Scott, John, and Jenny and I all love football, especially Patriots football, Diane, Lucy, Ethel, Dara, Cindy, Riley, Willow and Zeppelin don’t care about football. Likewise, Lucy and Ethel love the arts and to read, but the rest of my group is less involved in these activities. My circle of friends is vast, and each of them all share something that I enjoy, too, but as a whole we don’t ALL enjoy any of just one thing. I cannot see a specific connection. Kacy and I started out as friends because both of our ex-husbands were in the coast guard. Now Kacy is married to Scott and John is his brother.Lucy and Ethel were friends long before I came along, but my education goals brought us together. Meanwhile, Cindy and I have been friends since kindergarten, and I met Jenny and Diane at work and the rest of my little circle is simply a tossed salad of random connections. In fact our ages range from early 20s to late 60s, so I can’t even say we have age in common.
Truth is, I don’t really hang out with anyone but my family (wife, and two daughters), and so even this network is a stretch. Generally, my wife and I hang out with Kacy, Scott and John and only on football Sunday. So the rest of the year if we see each other, it’s because one of needs sitter assistance. Over all, I’m not sure this ego network assignment works with those of us who don’t have large circles. Yes I know a lot of people, but I don’t generally hang out with people. Never have.

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Interesting, and thank you! Keep in mind that social networks are not only about "hanging out" or friendship, but can be about other kinds of relations and communications as well. I encourage you to think about all the ways you interact with other people -- you might be able to find some non-friendship networks in your life!

Also, it's interesting to me to see your network graph below at the 1.0 Level, and to contrast that with the description of your network in the text above, which more than once describes connections between alters. That would make your network a Level 1.5 network. What would the network graph of your ego network look like at Level 1.5?

- Best, Prof. Cook

Carina Ego Network

2015-10-01 18:09:36 UTC

I tend to keep my circle pretty small. Most of the people in my circle as you can see are women. I don't have any male friends and I find that to be interesting. I have included my family such as my mother and my close personal friends who I know because of working with them or my children are friends with their children. The one's that are lavender colored are my friends from far away that I have met via Facebook. The one's in the navy blue are friends I have acquired through attending the University. Most of my friends are roughly the same age all ranging between 25-35. I would say that my circle does show homophily because of the characteristics of all being female. It shows that I tend to seek out friends who are indeed like myself women or mothers.

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Hello, gender homophily! Your network is multiplex, too, describing many different kinds of connections. I would be very interested to see you expand your Level 1.0 ego network out to the 1.5 level, in which connections between alters would be drawn. Are there any such connections?

- Best, Prof. Cook

P.S. Apostrophes should not be used to describe plurals. They should only be used to describe possession. Ex. "The ones that I associate with are always running away from me, strangely enough." Ex 2. "Of all the cats in the room, that one's eyes over there are particularly spooky."

Phoenix

2015-10-02 00:28:19 UTC

For my ego network, I have myself in the center as the ego, and then show the connections of close people in my current daily life. The characteristic that I chose to separate the people in my life is how I'm connected with them. The dark blue circles are my family. They were induced by circumstances. They were formed by being around me my whole life because they are close relatives. The gray circles are all girls that I work with and spend 5 days a week with. They were also induced by circumstances. They were formed from us working at the same place every day. The red circles are all people that are my friends. Those were a result of choice. They were formed by having similar interests as me and by being people that I enjoy spending time with. I think all of these categories would fall under homophily. For my friends (the red group) I'd say that they would be choice homophily. As for the other two groups, I would say that they are induced homophily.

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Hello, Phoenix! It was great to see you in person in office hours yesterday and to talk about your ego network in greater detail. I like the way that you explicitly describe the meaning of different colors in this Level 1.0 ego network.

I'd like you to provide a bit more detail: for the "other two groups" you refer to, what leads you to conclude that they are characterized by induced homophily? Induced homophily occurs when the groups or communities we are in are homogeneous, therefore leading to homogeneity in our ties.

Best,

Prof. Cook

Auriga's "Circle of Friends" Ego Network

2015-10-02 16:33:35 UTC

I want to start by saying that homophily, choice and induced may just be the death of me! Any input and "tips" from my wonderful classmates or Professor Cook would be greatly appreciated!

I was unable to copy and paste from NodeXL to Padlet so i hope this looks ok on your end! I have also emailed...

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Hi, Auriga. You did a great job of sharing your image. I like it very much! I like that you describe ties in this Level 1.5 ego network with a color code -- good work there.

Induced homophily => a tendency to associate with those like ourselves that occurs because people like ourselves are simply more present in a) the general society or b) in the groups where we form ties.

Choice homophily => a tendency to associate with those like ourselves that occurs above and beyond the level of chance encounters under conditions of induced homophily.

- Best, Prof. Cook

Cassiopeia "Girls from High School"

2015-10-03 22:17:37 UTC

Trying to keep this simple so I can really wrap my head around the concepts presented here. This is a network of the girls I graduated High School with that live within a 15 minute radius of one another and still get together for girls night. Some I am in contact with much more than others. We are all of the same age range and all graduated from the same high school, we were friends than and now though friendship connections have shifted over the years. In high school I was in touch with each of these people daily. Now blue tie show contact daily, purple monthly, orange every 4 months, yellow every 2 years,red weekly, green multiple times each day. Size of node indicates how far away the person lives. Smaller the node the further away that person lives from Me.So my understanding is this is a level 1.5 and it is a example of choice Homophily as we have remained friends by choice.

Choice Homophily, happening when social ties between similar people occur more often than chance alone would predict.

Libra - Close Ego Netwrok

2015-10-03 23:01:24 UTC

This is a 1.5 ego network. This network is a homophily - it is the people that are closest to me in one way or another. The stars are family, the odd tear drop is my only sister, the hearts are my daughter and husband (differentiated by color) and the green rectangles are friends. The connection lines also show relationships. The blue lines are family ties, the black are friends I have met at work, the green line is my bff who i met when we were both pregnant (babies born 5 days apart). The dotted line is my husband. The yellow lines signify my friends since middle school. The thick red lines are the most important to me personally. They show the ties between mothers and daughters. The family ties are easy to see and identify how they were created. The friendship ties are all very important as the importance of the the reciprocation in these relationships is mutual.

Capella- Family and Friends

sarah_lemieux — 2015-10-04 15:41:54 UTC

My Ego network is at 1.5 and is Homopholy. The green lines represent my family (my children and husband), the black are friends from high school who also share a tie because they are married. The red dotted line and purple dotted line are adult friends. The solid blue line is my co-worker.

I indicate the length of time I have known each by the color of their node. Pink for the oldest followed by purple, then orange and lastly Green for the newest.

Antares

messinapro — 2015-10-04 17:12:39 UTC

Antares, wow: an island? Talk about an environment of constraint! You were not only on the same island but working on the same place, making the homophily that occurred a matter of induced homophily.

Virgo

2015-10-04 21:14:03 UTC

My ego 1.5 is based on people I work with. These are ones that I work with the most and have the most contact with. I have based it on that we all have been in the military and then their alters in what branch they are in. In my type of work, people that have been in the military form a bond that those they have not served have a hard time understanding. We pick on each other like brothers, but will have each others back whenever it is necessary.

Serpens

2015-10-04 23:29:49 UTC

My 1.5 Ego Network is based on my close friends. We are all female and all around the same age. The heart nodes are friends I have had since at least high school (one dates back to kindergarten). The cloud nodes are friends I have gained within the past 4 years. The purple color for the nodes represents marriage and the black indicates divorce. For the most part this network is choice homophily. The one exception is "Marcy". We became friends through induction (our daughters became best friends in Pre-K, so we were kind of forced into a friendship but it has turned out great).

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Serpens, I love the look of this network! The node shapes are really unique and draw the eye. I also like the way you accurately describe induction through your children sharing the same Pre-K class. A question: marriage is the formation of a tie, right? And divorce is the dissolution of that tie, right? So to say that "marriage" and "divorce" are characteristics of nodes is a little confusing. Do you mean to say that the black nodes are divorced people, while the purple nodes are married people?

- Best, Prof. Cook

Hydra

2015-10-05 01:18:59 UTC

This is a homophily ego network. The ego node which is my

mother and her daughters included with their respective families. This social network is 2.0 level ego network that include all my family’s member (nodes) up to a network distance of 2 from ego. The ego node is connected to 5 actors that are themselves connected to their own alter. Hydra and Neima live in the same city, like Fathia and Leila that live in the same state. Ego’s alters are connected to their respective children, and my nephews are not even connected with the ego’s alters.

Ego/ Papa

Ego / Hydra / Houssein

Ego / Leila / Boha/ Adan

Ego Kadra Fabien /

Iqbal

Ego/ Fathia/ Ahmed /Ali

Elmi

Bokari

Marganie

Ego / Neima/ Ibrahim/ Adnan

Amar

Imran

Celine

red: my sisters

blue are sisters's husbands

brown are my nephews

yellow are my nieces

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Hi, Hydra. So you wouldn't say this network is homophily. Rather, you'd say the network "shows" homophily, or use the adjective form and say this network is homophilous. In your case, that's geographic homophily, which is a form of homophily we often overlook simply because it is so ubiquitous.

Best,

Prof. Cook

Sagitta

brandy_radke1 — 2015-10-05 01:21:13 UTC

My Ego network 1.5 is of my ties to my close friends. All of these friends have been close friends of mine but some I fell out of touch with because of my busy work and school schedule.

First you have the tie colors which represent where I met each person. Green = work friend, black = racing buddy, blue = church friend, and red = school friend.

Next I have the node shapes which represent where they live. Square= Las Vegas, Triangle= Maine, Diamond=California.

Lastly I have large and small node shapes, the large node shapes represent my close friends that I am still in touch with and talk to on a regular basis, the small node shapes are my close friends that I lost touch with over the years. I would say induced homophily

Aquila

2015-10-05 02:57:57 UTC

My 1.0 ego network is a homophily with a choice constraint. The primary relation in my ego network is that we are a group of friends about the same age. Actually we are a group of married, or in a relationship, network. To say age is the reason we are associated is not entirely correct. It is a combination of age, beliefs, life's struggles and achievements as well as likes and dislikes in which we are connected. My network exists by choice circumstance.