"The first time a woman I'll call Shoshana went toBrandi Carlile's music festival, she arrived alone. She had just been through another unsuccessful round of IVF. During one of the songs, about motherhood, she began to cry in the middle of the crowd. Then two women she had never met stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing slowed. That's when I realized, Shoshana told me in an interview, this place isn't just about music."
"They cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives: age and gender, work and class, culture and politics, belief and life stage. Imagine someone in your running club who happens to introduce you to a group of board game enthusiasts, whom you've never met before: the bridge tie's introduction enables you to explore an interest you've never been able to develop."
An attendee named Shoshana found emotional support and connection at a music festival after a failed IVF cycle, illustrating spontaneous social bonding among strangers. Sociological research identifies weak ties—acquaintances and near-strangers—as primary sources of major opportunities like jobs, ideas, and life-altering connections. Bridge ties, a subset of weak ties, connect individuals to entirely new social spheres by crossing boundaries of age, gender, class, culture, politics, and life stage. Such ties enable exploration of new interests and reshape perceptions of possibility. Most people rarely cultivate these loosely connected networks, yet they function as a vital social pipeline for novel resources and transformations.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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