In his paper on the strength of weak ties, Mark Granovetter discusses how weak ties allow you to access networks that are normally unavailable or unfamiliar to you. A weak tie will be much better connected to different networks than the one you’re in. For this reason, they serve as a gateway to other networks. Needless to say, other networks can be useful to find jobs or products that you may otherwise be unable to obtain.

In more recent years new technologies have been introduced to society which have created easier networking tools. One example that I’d like to look at is Craigslist. Networking sites like Craigslist have made it possible to people to communicate easily with their weak ties. Since the site is broken down by community, each member has something in common. Granted this is an extremely weak tie, but the tie exists. The site allows people to cross networks in order to obtain both goods and services.

The ability to network so easily has some interesting consequences. One which I stumbled upon is a news article described a bank robbery which was aided with the use of Craigslist.

http://news.cnet.com/bank-robber-hires-decoys-on-craigslist-fools-cops/

The article basically describes how a guy hired people to stand on a street corner dressed in a particular fashion. He then robbed a bank and ran through the crowd dressed the same way. The interesting part of the story, though, is how he was able to hire so many people outside of his own close network. Obviously, he couldn’t tell his friends to do it because they’d be liable for the robbery. He needed people from other networks with which he had weak ties or no ties so that they couldn’t alert the authorities to his where abouts. Craigslist is one example, but many other sites now make the same things possible. Rideshare websites make it possible for people to network together easily. It almost seems as if weak ties exist between any two people because of today’s new technologies.