If you jumped off a bridge, turns out I would , too.

We all know the the book, the space, etc. have changed hte way we network.
But evidence is mounting that "traditional" social networks are also super important. (You know, going to the mall with the girls. Remember that type of network?)

Enter new research. From Nicholas A. Christakis, a medical sociologist at the Harvard Medical School, and James H. Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego.
They found in a study last summer that obesity grows in groups. Like the plague. Nobody cant say yes to cheetos. Esp. when Bobby, Timmy, and Susie are crunching.
Now the duo has taken on another of my fave vices: smoking.
NEJM last week published a Christakis-Fowler slice of genius: those who smoke together, quit together. No more party packs, no more stress sticks, nada.
Turns out, whole networks of people - even those weird "because you know x and y, perhaps you know z" strangers are included.

"What all these studies do is force us to start to kind of rethink our mental model of how we behave," said Duncan Watts, a Columbia University sociologist. "Public policy in general treats people as if they are sort of atomized individuals and puts policies in place to try to get them to stop smoking, eat right, start exercising or make better decisions about retirement, et cetera. What we see in this research is that we are missing a lot of what is happening if we think only that way."

The research focused on a group from Framingham.
On the influences of quasi-friends, and even strangers: "It could be your co-worker's spouse's friend or your brother's spouse's co-worker or a friend of a friend of a friend. The point is, your behavior depends on people you don't even know," Christakis said. "Your actions are partially affected by the actions of people who are beyond your social horizon" -- but in the broader network.