New groups forming based on the internet

We talked about groups in recent classes, what impressed me most is the social network analysis, this is a study of social relationships between individuals, mapping and structuring of network.

There are three main types of communication network groups we mentioned about, the first one is centralized group. In this model, there should have one leader, and take this leader as a central part, all other members are like branches and leaves, they send information message directly to the leader. I think this is quite common in our life, for example students turn their assignments to the drop box which is directly connected to the professor. It is said that the group members will have a lower satisfaction in this kind of group, however I think it is the best way to collect information from different members. It is quickly and convenience, and also good to be classified, the other members won’t know the message you send to the leader unless you actually tell them. The leader is easier to be reached so it is convenient to give everyone a chance to emphasis their sense of presence in the group by themselves.

The second kind is the chained network, which divided members to different levels from low to high, each member can reach the member who is only one level higher. We talked about the advantage of this model is everyone can find a place in the group, nearly all members can be input a whole system. However it is not easy for the lower level members to get to the top, they will feel lost in the group since they have a low status. This is the commonest system in China’s government or administration institutions, Chinese society is based on human relationship, if you meet some troubles and need to be solved by the government or police whatever, it is almost impossible to get the person who can actually help you if you don’t know someone in higher level of the system who can gets you through the back door. The process through the low level to the top level is so tedious that most people will give up during the process or just be sent away by the lower status members.

The third one is decentralized network group, which model looks like a five pointed star. In this group, everyone is available and equal, the member can talk to whatever they want without any limitation, so the interaction is easier to be conduct. The GroupMe App is the one that came into my mind when we talked about this concept. I was first download and be invited by my study group members in the sociology class this semester and I quickly fall in love with it. We use it to discuss project questions and do the review together before the exam. Everyone enjoy the time we spend together on this App and we even do the group evaluation based on the performance on the GroupMe instead of Face-to-Face group meeting. However, it’s also easier to have more extreme decision when we use this App, I am a shy person and more likely to simply follow what other member’s opinions, I’m afraid of expressing myself while typing because I don’t know if I’m on the right track. Everyone just typing on their cellphone without seeing other’s reaction. While doing FtF group meeting, members are trying to get everyone’s agreement when they put forward an idea, they will ask: “What do you think of it?” and looks to other’s facial expression to determine if there’s anyone who holds a different idea. This is what Reduced Social Cues Model has pointed out, is that when there’s no nonverbal cues in the group, the computer mediation is bad for the group process. What’s more, it will also make the group member has less pressure on their behavior. When using an internet, we can simply avoid talking to others and be lazy by using an excuse “Oh I didn’t see there’s a new message”. So I think a successful group should be combined, both online and offline, this may largely increase the efficiency while focusing on work.