Why does proximity matter

While the findings are seemingly common-sense, the study — and continued research on social networks — holds a powerful message for a broad range of applications that rely on accurate predictions of how people move, such as emergency planning, infrastructure development, communications networks, and disease control. The findings also indicate that, even in the digital age, humans still form friendships based on personal interactions, said Tommy Nguyen, a Rensselaer graduate student and member of SCNARC.

Last year, the group published a landmark paper showing that when just 10 percent of the population is committed to an opinion without comparable committed opposition, their opinion will quickly be adopted by the majority of the society.

The current study drew on the public profiles friends and check-ins of , users of Gowalla collected between mid-September and late-October of Data was provided to researchers without individual identifications to protect the privacy of users.

What I learned from watching my grandfather and mother make friends was that maintaining a long-term relationship that can last decades requires proximity. When I say proximity, I don't necessarily mean living with few yards of each other, of course, certainly that might help but more so a distance that is manageable for both parties to engage in frequent face-to-face interactions. My grandfather and his best friend met at least three times a week over shared drinks and seemingly meaningless banter about which family member did what and where.

My mother on the other hand, met with her close friends at least twice a month and would catch up where they left off, as if no time had been lost at all. Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking about the fact that I'm not exactly on 'friend' terms with any of my neighbors.

This idea weighs heavily on me and I find myself confused about the difference between social responsibility and friendship.

Just because we live close to each other, and should support each other in certain neighborly matters, does that mean we need to be friends? It seems like we barely have time to meet in person these days, however we can still maintain feelings of connectedness through simply staying in touch through our digital channels. My struggle to turn my neighbors into friends made me realize my own need for emotional, rather than physical, proximity with my current and future friends.

So with this in mind, I took some time off to experiment with emotional proximity. For a week, I cut down on the number of times I talked to the friends that I would normally talk to every day. I refrained from meeting in person and I kept all phone conversations to under five minutes. After a few days of this, the other parties stopped trying as hard to stay in touch and I could sense the emotional distance seeping in.

It was clear to me that it takes a combination of physical and emotional proximity to make our friendships flourish. Unless there is a significant motivation to overcome the barrier of cost and time, convenience will prevail. Time is a finite resource, and as the number of choices grow, it becomes increasingly hard to accommodate everything one wants to do. Proximity lowers this friction and increases the chance one will show up.

It is no surprise then that the highest collaboration and knowledge transfer rates happen within distances equating to those reflecting the highest probability of people willing to bicycle and walk for transportation. Walking, biking and transit are important modes of transportation that enable idea flow, passive tie maintenance and increase the potential of forming new ties.

Walking and biking enable one to interact with those they pass by and are at speeds where one can notice individuals. Travel by single-occupancy vehicles have the opposite effect and separate us from others. Traveling by car often limits our interaction to our strong close ties.

The quality of the environment influences the potential of walking and biking.