Are we really free? "Our decisions depend solely on ourselves or others? What is the real power of cyberspace as a molder of lives? Three of the questions that pulsate in the pages of Online. The amazing power of social networks and how they affect us, that Taurus published Wednesday in Spain. Hint: Happiness, obesity or wealth is spread through social networks that tend to change habits or behaviors consciously or unconsciously. A screening of influences in today's New York Times Babelia forward through a passage in the book.
Nicholas A. Christakis, a medical sociologist, and James H. Fowler, professor of political science are the two scholars in the social networks that have signed this essay. Assuming that human nature nest social nature, the two American scientists reconstruct much of the history and evolution of group behaviors. Studies, analysis, examples and ideas that expose the power of others, known and unknown about the fate of each individual. These pages reveal this amazing descent. And confirm that the standards by which human behavior was measured and not helpful and that technological advances have changed the world and transformed survey mechanisms.
Internet social networks like Facebook and MySpace are the penultimate step in the evolution of humans and their collective behavior. His power and ability is far superior to what is known so far, and their reactions a mystery. The question remains the same: Why do we do? Sometimes contagion, others by imitation, and perhaps a few genuine initiative. Social networks, the usual, and cyberspace, is a living superorganism. And the key is not only the influence of others on an individual but of it on others. Especially now that there is a gap to the future full of uncertainty as reflected in the passage can be read online at the online edition of this newspaper: "One of the distinguishing features of the real and virtual worlds is our ability to control our presence ...".