Connected and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £2.75
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book
Start reading Connected on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Connected: Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives [Paperback]

Nicholas Christakis (Author), James Fowler (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
Price: £12.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock but may require up to 2 additional days to deliver.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £5.99   -- --
Paperback £8.96   -- --
Paperback, 3 Sep 2009 £12.99   -- --
Books Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

Publication Date: 3 Sep 2009

Is happiness catching? Are your friends making you fat? Can your sibling make you smart? Is wealth contagious? Where is true love found? Does free will exist?

Based on exciting discoveries in mathematics, genetics, psychology and sociology, ‘Connected’ is an innovative and fascinating exploration of how social networks operate.

Think it's all about who you know? It is. But not the way you think.

Turns out your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. And a happy friend is more relevant to your happiness than a bigger income.

Our connections - our friends, their friends, and even their friends' friends - have an astonishing power to influence everything from what we eat to who we sleep with. And we, in turn, influence others. Our actions can change the behaviours, the beliefs, and even the basic health of people we've never met.

In this brilliantly original and effortlessly engaging exploration of how much we truly influence one another, pre-eminent social scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler explain why obesity is contagious, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, with revelatory implications for everything from our notion of the individual to ideas about public health initiatives, "Connected" will change the way you think about every aspect of your life, and how you live it.

Frequently Bought Together

Connected: Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives + The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few + The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Price For All Three: £25.12

Some of these items are dispatched sooner than the others.

Buy the selected items together

Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: HarperPress (3 Sep 2009)
  • Language: Unknown
  • ISBN-10: 0007303599
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007303595
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,999,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Nicholas A. Christakis Page
Nicholas A. Christakis
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

‘[“Connected”] makes many claims, and many startling observations… It is not all about getting plump and happy; it is also about sex and making money…If one of your friends’ friends reads the book, it may be only a matter of time before you read it, too – the social network effect that extends as far back as Gutenberg.’ Simon Garfield, Observer

‘In the category…of works of brilliant originality that stimulate and enlighten and can sometimes even change the way we understand the world’ New York Times Review of Books

‘An illuminating account of the pervasive and often bizarre qualities of social networks…We like to think we are largely in control of our day-to-day lives, yet most of what we do, and even the way we feel, is significantly influenced by those around us – and those around them, and those around them.…The authors excel at drawing out the devil in the detail: their explanations of how the architecture of networks dictates their dynamics are compelling.…profound’ Michael Bond, New Scientist

About the Author

Nicholas Christakis is a Harvard professor with joint appointments in Care Policy, Sociology and Medicine, who has been studying social networks for the last ten years. His work has been covered by numerous publications including the New York Times, Newsweek and Time magazine, which recently voted him one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2009.

James Fowler is a political scientist who specialises in the study of social networks, human cooperation and political participation. His projects on obesity and the genetic basis of political behaviour have been covered by media outlets including the Washington Post and the BBC.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 50 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Pitched at around teen magazine level 30 Dec 2009
By Rosey Lea TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
I picked up this book after reading a synopsis of the content in one of the 'lite' science magazines. On reading the book I was disappointed to see the magazine's two page article had been a perfect synopsis and there was no further depth in the book.

That's the problem, this book is very light reading. There's nothing new here, just observations of well-know social experiments (even if you haven't heard of Stanley Milgram you'll recognise his famed experiments), and well documented social phenomenon. There's no real discussion of 'hows and whys'. In many places it reads like a teen interest magazine feature.

If you've never, ever considered that your life/actions impact upon other people then this is a good place to start, but if you've realised that being around miserable people makes you miserable you've pretty much exceeded the book already.

(NB - Less than glowing Amazon Vine reviews generally get hit hard with the `no' button for the question `Was this review helpful to you?'. This doesn't bother me a jot.)
5 Comments | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart look at social networks 12 Jun 2011
By Dr. Bojan Tunguz TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
The raise of the internet has precipitated the increase of public's interest in networks and many books have come out in recent years that explore this new fascination. Most of these books, however, focus on some very trite and visible aspect of the web networks, and don't delve deeper into the more subtle and nonobvious properties of networks. In the light of that the strength of "Connected" is that it heavily relies on well established scientific research and presents it in an accessible fashion that still does full justice to the topic. Both authors are themselves prominent researchers in the field, and this fact helps with the choice and presentation of topics. The particular focus on social networks is very timely in the light of recent explosion of online social networks. However, social networks have been around for a very long time. In fact, there have been some evolutionary theories that suggest that our rise as a species has been to a large extent spurred by the need to manage large social networks.

The book provides many interesting and nontrivial insights into what sorts of social networks are most beneficial in certain circumstances, and which ones on the other hand can have the most deleterious effects, such as in cases of spreading of diseases. One of the more pleasant aspects of this book has been the more positive attitude towards the role of religion in society that is not simplistic and provides us with some useful new insights and ways of looking at religion. For instance, from the purely social-networking point of view God can be viewed as a node in a network that is equally distant from all other nodes - individual believers in this case. This provides us with a useful new paradigm, and it would be interesting to see if other social researchers would employ it in their investigations and analyses of religion in the upcoming years.

If you are looking for a well-researched and accessible book on social networks, this is probably the best one that has been on the market thus far.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of good insights, but very dry 25 Mar 2010
By Ross Boardman TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Connected covers a large topic of networks, communities and relationships. In it are some real eye openers on how ideas spread, social proof and "buzz". It reads very much like a text book and this is backed up by the high volume of citations. For a marketer or a sociology researcher, it does contain a lot of material that could by used. My main criticism is that it is not an easy read. The volume of facts soon move it from a casual pick and put down to an academic tome.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars not as useful as I thought
I had hoped to gain some valuable insights through this book but at the end I was left feeling as though the subject had really only been glossed over. Read more
Published 7 months ago by European Traveller
4.0 out of 5 stars Popular science book (like Blink and Freakonomics)
"Connected" bills itself as a popular science book in the vein of "Blink" and "Freakonomics". So if you liked those books, you'll enjoy this one. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Jayne in London
3.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Introduction
I came to this book as a complete novice in social psychology and found it to be an interesting introduction to the ideas behind social networking and the power and influences of... Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2010 by L. M. Cowan
3.0 out of 5 stars A little shallow
Books about social psychology and the social networks that shape our current conceptions of life are tremendously timely, what with movies like the Social Network raising awareness... Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2010 by Dr. Michael Heron
3.0 out of 5 stars Too little info dragged out too slowly
Like some of the other reviews I found that I had been 'conned' into reading this by a great article in a magazine. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2010 by L. Day
4.0 out of 5 stars A great pop-sociology read
I cant really understand some of the negative reviews of this book since I found that it was broad in scope and interesting in just how it managed to apply the networking research... Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2010 by Lark
1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor
A lot of descriptions of other people's research into group behaviour; many statements of 'possible', 'may', 'might' and 'it seems likely' with respect to supposed explanations for... Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2010 by Mrs. Margaret Gallaghrt
3.0 out of 5 stars I agree with the majority of reviewers...
Like quite a few reviewers, I found this book superficially interesting but not a life-changing bombshell. Read more
Published on 22 July 2010 by Morena
5.0 out of 5 stars Good one, but it took too long to arrive
The book is in perfect conditions, but I had to wait 2 weeks or so.
Published on 31 May 2010 by Jose Carlos Moron Iraculis
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but...
Connected is pitched at the audience of popular social science books like the author Malcolm Gladwell's, or economics such as Freakonomics. Read more
Published on 18 May 2010 by Stucumber
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback


      Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges