Throughout the semester, we have observed many, simplified models of social networks. While these models reduce to people to simple nodes and edges, the main pattern revealed by these models are revealed all around us. I had one such experience when navigating the Ithaca housing market, searching for a place to live next year.

First, let’s take a look at Ithaca’s own Housing Solutions, a website that not only allows one to search through listings, but also tabulates average rents by location and type of apartment. While the information that formed this graph is very complicated, we can easily see how we can apply our Bi-Partite Graph model of real estate to the rents provided. Presumably, people will pay more for more space and less distance from central areas. As one can see, this is reflected in the high prices of larger places to live closer to Cornell and Downtown.

As students, we must also have to form groups to fill up spaces in larger apartments. Because choosing to live is a decision made rarely, it is similar to the experiment we ran when studying power in social networks. In the experimental case, one has to choose to split a dollar before time runs out. In this case, one can only make one or two major decisions a year. Thus students could make power decisions in the same ways the nodes in our experiment did.

Finally, the process of finding a great place to live at a great price sounds like the same kind of information that is spread by the “Strength of Weak Ties.” Because our acquaintances are exposed to a world outside of our own, I have found places to live and new roomates by simply asking others.

The beauty behind the simplicity of the ideas we learn in class lies in their ability to be applied to many situations. While real life situations are often many more times complex, it is exciting to see these broad patterns play out in our daily lives.