[Music] [Applause] it was in September 1993 I was a PhD student in sociology and I was heading to New York for a visiting Fellowship I was far too early at the airport because I was so nervous and excited it was a rainy day cloudy but warm I strolled through a Bookshop and I saw a man looking exactly like detective Columbo of whom I am fond after a while I had a sandwich and I saw him again he wore a pale trench coat and he looked tired a quarter of an hour later I went to an espresso bar and had a coffee and guess what here he was again sitting in a corner we looked at each other and we smiled like me he realized that we had met three times within an hour we talked his name was Jonathan he was an economist and he was heading to Singapore I told him about my PhD project which was honestly a bit stuck at this moment I studied social networks after the silent revolution in per former gdr and I actually wanted to know what happened to networks of friends and family when the whole system is changing the problem was how to boil it down he laughed and we talked and he told me that he knew people in East Berlin and he was he was so amazed and triggered that the Communist system mingled into the weaker contacts of people this he said is the ultimate control the weaker ties back then I did not fully understand but this stayed with me I never forgot I became a social scientist and I had have been studying social networks and social cohesion for many many years and this is what my talk is about do you know the phenomenon of the Six Degrees of Separation it was the result of an experiment undertaken years ago back then in the 1970s respondents got the task to forward a message a handwritten message on a postcard through their social network to a stranger to a person whom they did not know and who lived hundreds of miles away if I would do this with you I would ask you I would give you the task of forward a message to a person for example the daughter of the owner of the Bookshop funer Felder at the cot Mark in groaning and nobody knows her probably and you in the first draw would pass the message to your friend and friend of Friend and Friend of friend and ultimately you would hand it over to the so-called Target person well the researchers found out that the successful chains consisted of six steps of weak connections ever since then it is a popular idea that we can reach everyone in the world through just six steps and this is a great idea it is fascinating we are one big family it's not true because only the successful chains consisted of six steps or handshakes the majority of respondents failed to pass the message to the Target person and this was because the message did not leave the very bubble the ultimate tiny circle of stronger TI and after some trials the possibility is to hand it over to a new person try it out so the experiment actually showed that fragmentation exists that the world is segregated and that we cannot access other world worlds that are distant from us why is this important do we need contacts to other worlds do we need contacts that are weak do we need contact make contacts to strangers so a weak context is a a contact is a contact to a person you know but not well a person in the street someone who he sometimes in the pup in the gym a former classmate if we smile at a stranger we create weak contact and my point is that these weak connections matter they matter for us as individuals and they matter for society as a whole but what is wrong with strong connections what is wrong with strong contacts I will give you three arguments but before I will ask you a question and I would have like to have some light who of you came with a person who of you came with a person here well the majority who of you came with a person you actually do not know you I actually do not know why you are here with this person you have no idea what you will talk about in The Break Hands Up nobody and who of you came with a person you really looked far forward to meet and you looked forward to connect and yeah you are really joyful and happy that you can spend the evening with hands up this is this is the majority so and we all do this we cherish our strong connections and this is fine of course take a look at the person you came with and the lights may go out again or down again so did you realize that the person who brought you here is actually very similar to you you are similar in many respects you are similar in cultural background you are similar in education if you are not family you are similar in age you are similar in preferences you are going to vote for similar parties in a couple of days similarity breeds connection and this is fine but it's actually just reproducing what you think what you know and who you already are did you know that the genetic codes of good friends is more similar than the genetic codes of two random strangers in a population so similarity is at odds with newness and it does not challenge our brain second think of the last evening the last day weekend whatever you have spent with your close friends and family this feels good right and but did you realize that these persons are not only strongly connected to you they are all also strongly connected to each other this is fine and this makes you feeling safe but it actually means means that these networks are literally closed it is very hard for new persons to enter the network and within this circle you are control they control your your behavior they make you act according to their group Norms third these strong connections they are a blessing for many but they are a mixed blessing in particular if you have many strong ties and nothing Beyond did you know that toxic relationships learned helplessness power imbalance occur far more often in circles of stronger ties and even more violence and murder occur more often in circles of stronger ties much more often than in The Wider Network so here you go this is the problem with stronger ties they do not connect us with the world they set us apart they are at odds withth newness and they pin us down and take us for granted you don't know what what I'm talking about well we all experienced this during covid the measures to control the virus went straightforwardly in our Network and cut us off our weaker connections the opportunities the meeting places where we get in touch with these weaker ties they were closed down uh the bars the restaurants the the clubs the gyms even the streets did you remember how this felt our networks were frozen no new person could enter no one could leave did you know that the number of divorces in 2020 was lowest for more than 20 years even 30 years and did you remember do you remember how desperate we were of all these Zoom meetings nothing unexpected happened no jo joke no unprompted idea we missed the spontaneous conversation the conversation in a train the music in the street the musician who t walked us through his biography we missed the opportunity to smile at a stranger because in these very moments we feel connected we feel that we belong and these moments give us hope inspiration and New Perspective and they come with our weaker connections so what can we do can we escape can we ESC Escape these tiny uniform worlds yes we can everyone can maybe you say I don't want I like my bubble I need it it's safe it's comfortable it's warm and I understand that in times like this I understand it very well and I do not ask you to give anything up I ask you to open it up maybe you also say I have thousands of contacts at the social media well then transform these links into real connections talk to them meet them exchange ideas unfold the benefits of weak connection so here's what you can do and what everyone can do become an experiment smile at a stranger when you go to your work tomorrow do something unexpected when you are with your stronger ties behave as if you are weaker connected or enlarge your network actively give a second degree dinner where your guests do not have to bring a material present but a new person a Str strer to you there is much you can do what is your choice do you talk to a stranger in the break we have major problems to solve the world is reigned by hate cruelty and walk in war and we can only make a difference we can only make a change change if we cherish our weaker connection this is a step towards a solution ultimately we can turn the world into a world where we dare to to smile at strangers and turn them into friends and where we do become a big family weekly connected through just a couple of handshakes six or even less so Here Comes My Wish for all of you tonight I wish you all a smile from a stranger thank you than you