If aliens made 100 clones of you with your skills, knowledge, attitude, and mindset, would the world be a better place to live or worse?
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Press, radio, TV, and social media are precisely clone-making machines.
Each of us resonates with what we consume.
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We have a conscious or unconscious tendency to copy who resembles us.
That’s called homophily (“love of being alike”).
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For example, people may be more likely to follow trends or form friendships, romantic relationships, or professional connections with individuals who share interests or have similar educational backgrounds at similar times.
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Our network shapes us, and we shape our network as well. We copy not only our relatives and friends but also friends of friends and friends of friends of friends.
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You are connected to anyone on Earth by 6 degrees of separation: your friend is 1 degree from you, the friend of your friend is 2 degrees, and so on.
But we have influence and are influenced by 3 degrees on average.
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If you have 120 acquaintances, and each of them has 120 acquaintances, and each of those has that many, too, you can imagine how many people you may influence just by your presence.
And if you are on social networks, you probably have way more friends than 120.
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So, a few questions for you:
- Does this make you feel paralyzed or more responsible for your actions?
- Do your actions match your virtues?
- Are you living your best self?
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This information was strongly influenced by the book “Connected” by Nicholas Christakis, MD, Ph.D., and James Fowler, Ph.D.
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Cover photo by cottonbro studio.