Social Networks vs. Social Groups

The most interesting item I took from this week's reading in Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs was that it's better to look at social groups as social networks. Barry Wellman said that groups are special networks that are "densely-knit, tightly-bounded and multistranded." This really makes sense to me because I don't know of any of my friends that are in a single group that doesn't have any outside connections. Also, many of my group memberships do not overlap with any other members except myself. I am the only "node" connecting many of my group-networks.

Large groups don't necessarily have to be group-networks. For example, American University isn't closely bound enough among all its students to be considered a group-network. It is a network because it is a loose binding of its members. However, several American University alums working together at a firm could be members of a group-network because their small size creates a tight enough bond. The AU group-network isn't a group by itself because of the network that created it--the firm where the alums worked. The AU group-network also isn't a "group" because there are many outside network connections. Each group-network serves as a node between different people and creating connections.