We’ve never stopped and thought about stuff like this. With social networking running rapid online, what other ways can we show social networks? After analyzing data from one high school, scientists have come up with this chart. Showing how sluts and pimps connect those whom otherwise wouldn’t be connected. As you can see, the largest area of the chart is most likely the result of the ‘popular’ clique in school, while the smallest one, between only two people, is most likely high school sweethearts (every school’s got them, no matter who disgustingly cute it might seem). Though unlike adult groups similarly surveyed, there was no “core” group of sexually active subjects. Only a certain amount of students connected any link to the other student community. While sexual promiscuity ran rapid, only a few of these charted students seem to have shared partners. James Moody, professor at Ohio State University, compares the chart to the likes of a rural telephone network, while most adult charts resemble something like an airport communications hub.
On the scientific signifigance:
“The students in this network are not unusual. They are just average students, and not extremely active sexually. So social policies that could help some of them protect themselves from STDs could break a lot of these chains that can lead to the spread of disease.�
The charts show that broad based intervention, rather then one-on-one conversations, would be the best way to quell high school STD transfer, despite previous claims. My one and only question is: Where the hell were all these girls when I was in high school? — Andrew Dobrow
Researchers Map The Sexual Network of an Entire High School [OSU Research News]
