Interesting metaphor for social groups

[firecat]

plymouth just posted a fascinating metaphor in one of my friends' friends-locked posts.

Social groups are hollow spheres - everyone's on the edge and noone is in the middle. That's the theory I came up with a few years back to explain the fact that all my friends seem to think they're on the fringes somehow. I guess you could say there are different shells to the spheres and some people are in the inner shells and some in the outer shells. Kinda like atoms. People are electrons. Nobody is at the nucleus.

I think this is a good way of spinning one's thinking about social groups in a way that makes it OK and normal to feel "on the outside" of one. (Although it doesn't explain why everyone thinks social groups have an inside that they are outside of and everyone else is inside of.)

Comments

[lcohen]

(Although it doesn't explain why everyone thinks social groups have an inside that they are outside of and everyone else is inside of.)

some groups really do have an inside and an outside. there's a group of people where i get invited to the really big events, but i'm not one of the people who gets invited to the gathering that occurs every wednesday. i'm on the fringes of that and i don't think it's a misperception on my part. i can think of a few groups like that, actually. i *am* a member, since i do get invited to the big things, unlike the ones where i just read about the big gatherings when i read their LJs, but i'm not in the inner circle.

i'm sure there are groups where the theory you quote applies, i just don't think it's always the case.