Social Gravity
Definition
If one applies the General Theory of Relativity to social space, one can see that the shape of space makes people move, and the gravity of the social shapes space. Thus, people have social gravity, and when they congregate, more people are drawn in by this social gravitational field. Sometimes people from blurred areas can experience this social gravity field and congregate on an event from different idea economies. For instance, a Linux programmer can be drawn into the same Youtube video clip as a law student as well as a fry cook. I consider areas of great social masses to approximate black holes.
Widely adopted products are black holes of attention, with event horizons of being "keeping up with the Joneses". The event horizon of the event can be relational in real life or in digital life. A link can be provided by a friend online, (via a blog, instant message, or e-mail). A piece of hardware can be envied and researched outside of digital space, or the digital space can be used to learn about and purchase the device.
Additional Reading
Location Determines Social Network Influence, CCNY-Led Team Finds Number of Connections Less Important Than Proximity to Core "The important thing is where someone is located in a network,” said Professor Makse in an interview. “If someone is in the core, they can spread information more efficiently. The challenge is finding the core.”
"Each network member’s position in that network was plotted on a graph with the number of connections along one axis and the k-shell value along the other, e.g. (100, 5), (50, 25). The team found that nodes with many connection hubs located at the periphery of a network, i.e. low k-shell values, were poor spreaders".
