Granovetter brings up an interesting, yet wordy, discussion of social ties throughout society.  I agree with his formula for strength of a tie, which as he sees it is equal to the amount of time, emotional intensity, intimacy (mutual confiding) and the reciprocal services between the two individuals.  I believe that these aspects are very important in the calculation of a relationship between people, however these are not the only variables that should be included in this equation.  Relationships, and social ties, go through ups and downs and the tie may change strength throughout a friendship.  However as a simplified model I believe this equation would suffice.

The discussion of the strong and weak ties between people, and how a bridge is incorporated into these relationships was extremely wordy.  The point he made however is accurate to real life.  For example with his discussion of people A, B and C, if A has a friendship with both B and C, then through time B and C can ultimately become friends.  Through my own personal experience I have seen this happen, although the ‘bridge’ between B and C, in certain situations, has become a strong tie, and in some cases, stronger than the tie between A and B, and A and C.  This would then disrupt the system that Granovetter had so meticulously created.  It is interesting to see this some what simple idea of relationship and put it into terms such as these, and see how they can effect the dispersal of information, like rumors.  Weak ties create the “rumor” that we are all familiar with, where the true facts get twisted through word of mouth, especially between people how share weak friendship ties as opposed to strong ties.  This discussion brought up interesting points of human interaction and how we face relationships.