Social Interaction Critical Mass Theory

I just had an interesting thought today. As an engineer, I tend to see graphs in my head, but I will attempt describe it in words. I was pondering a small event today.

We went to a neighbor's home and got some cupcakes. We were actually offered them. I couldn't pass that up!

Then I thought I would trace back the events leading to this taking place. Well, Nate and I play racquetball on Tuesdays whenever possible. That gives a forum to make other plans, and we were invited to his home to watch a Jazz game. The game I will not talk about, as it was somewhat depressing (Jazz Vs. Suns.) Anyhow, I had a great time over there. Joanna didn't make it there with me, and Judd's wife didn't either. They both had other things to get done. Kim was making food for a bridal shower, Joanna was taking care of a mountain of clothes. We both told our wives they could ditch their responsibilities, but being better and more industrious, they chose differently.

Judd and I left the Tanner's home together around midnight, and he commented that she would be up until 2 AM cooking.

The next day at church, we chatted in the hall, and I asked how the cooking marathon went. A discussion ensued, and I was invited to come get some cupcakes.

Coming back around, this is the string of events that led to cupcake acquisition.

It was while pondering on this that I thought up the Social Interaction Critical Mass Theory. I am sure this is all well documented and there are probably studies on this, but it's new for me.

The postulation is that social interaction is difficult and laborious atomically. Well, it always has been for me anyway. One has to seek opportunities, put oneself "out there." Essentially, when building a social life initially, much work has to be put into it.

Over time, however, with sufficient work and frequency of social interaction, events start leading to other events, a shared context is developed in a social group, and at a certain point, socialization within this group becomes almost self-sustaining. It is at this level that good friendships are often formed.

The cupcake acquisition chain of events is an example of the shared context that can lead to a self-sustaining social group.

Now, some people have a knack for this thing, and doing the work to create sustaining social groups isn't so hard for them. For most people, however, the many pulls of life make it hard to reach the critical mass necessary for such a self-sustaining group to form.

But the overarching picture in my head is a graph with time on the X axis and the "relative stength" of the social group on the other. There are then events that push the line up, increasing the bonds of the group, and others that pull the line down. The line by default will drop over time without events to strengthen the group. I also imagine a dotted horizontal line that indicate the critical mass where the group becomes self sustaining, or at which point members of the group don't have to think, "I really ought to call so and so up, it's been a while." But instead the group gets together on whims or one event leads to another, etc.

I think I am done pontificating on this one. It is a skill that can be lost as we get older, or perhaps it is just one that transfers to our families as it takes time for a social group to maintain itself. As families are built, time is spent on them, and they become these primary social units, at least for many of us. And I think that is good.

I am still thinking of how this phenomenon could help neighborhoods and larger groups of people coalesce into strong social units. Is there time in our busy lives to put into both of these social structures, family and neighborhood, so they can both get into the areas of critical mass where the strong sense of family and community will pervade us? Would it be worth the sacrifice of some of life's many distractions to prioritize? I tend to think so. But that initial push to get up to the critical mass, that takes more time, more energy than to keep it going. And it would take a coordinated effort of many people at the same time for it to really take place.

Now I am supposed to close with something profound. But I really don't have it. I guess a quote or two would do:

"We can begin by doing small things at the local level. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously."
-- Grace Lee Boggs

There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication.... Try the experiment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another, especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your experience changing.
-- John Dewey

Still Moving Along!

We had such a great year last year with several fun short trips, and all the good times at the holidays, that we have been focusing on life in general for the last while.

The biggest events so far this year have been our taking the next step in fertility treatments, and the "Chili Bowl" chili cookoff at work.

So on the fertility front, we still don't really know if anything in particular is wrong, so it's pretty much an escalation of the general regimen, or the next step in the process, which is artificial insemination, and hormone treatments around the cycle. We're a month into the process, we'll see how things go. In a half year or so if we haven't had luck, we may take it to the next level. Still hoping to hear something on the adoption front, we have been spreading the pass-along cards and hoping for the best. We may escalate our efforts as well in a while and perhaps do some fostering. Time will tell, but we feel so, well, capable right now to be raising a family, and feel a little guilty and empty not taking on that responsibility.

The Chili Bowl at work is a yearly event started by me. This was the fourth annual installment, and I still had to make it happen. It's kind of cool, there are different people at work that have started traditions, and they sort of just keep them going. Mike with Moustache March, Nicole with the Pumpkin Dessert contest. We are always so busy these days that only tradition carries on, everything else is left by the wayside.

This year there were 21 chili entries, and they were ALL good, except one which was labeled "Hormel", and the judges banned it from future cookoffs. People had always threatened to put mass produced chili in a crockpot, and this year someone actually did it. It really was stunning the difference. All I know is that engineers are darned good chili cooks! At least the ones at our office! I have posted a few pictures (click for more detail):


The judges, well, judged during the 30 minutes before the general consumption began. Nicole was categorizing the entries. I am on the left in my obligatory bright shirt and Tabasco hat.



The conference room during general consumption. We have so many more people than four years ago! This is a high participation event, I mean, chili is so good, so universal.


The chilis themselves, ravaged.

It was a great time this year.

Following the chili bowl was February. During this month I, Daniel, crawled into a hole and didn't come out for three weeks. There was a big delivery and all I did was work, work, work, racking up almost double time on billable hours for three weeks straight. I am still recovering. I can say, however, that I do enjoy what I work on, it is interesting, fulfilling, and challenging. I can say that now that I have mostly recovered, anyway.