The “Friendship Gap”: How Socioeconomic Status Shapes Social Networks

Despite the existence of social media platforms, there still exists something called the ‘friendship gap’. This gap, which exists because of class differences, decides everything from whether one receives mentorship to what career opportunities one gets to avail.

 It is no secret that in most contemporary societies, more attention is directed towards income disparity as compared to how social networks are stratified based on social class. 

Regardless of one’s personal stance, studies have shown that the friendships we end up forming are more often than not, planned within the framework of social class. As a result, people with similar levels of education, income, and occupations flock together, shaping powerful circles that reinforce pre-existing privileges while ensuring that their counterparts remain in a state of perpetual poverty.

This presents one with very grave possibilities. Social networks are built in order to provide support on an emotional level, and alongside that, they serve as access points for jobs, education, and other resources.

 Social networks that are built on the foundation of class stratification do absolutely nothing else other than intensifying the disparity that already exists. 

This article seeks to identify the impact caused by socioeconomic class on friendships, its consequences, and the possible solutions.

The Homophily Principle: Birds of a Feather

The theory of homophily explains the gaps in friendships across social divides – some people prefer to only associate with someone who can relate with them. So much so that Sociologist Miller McPherson once described social networks as “the case of birds of feather flocking together” which is clearly the case in friendship clusters based on class divisions. Evidence suggests that people tend to form relationships with those who have the same level of income, education, and social status.

A case in point, 64% of Americans who are college graduates have friends who are also educated compared to only 25% of high school graduates. This self-reinforcing loop starts at a very young age.

 Wealthy families usually have their kids suspended at preschools as well as after school activities where they are surrounded by other kids from rich families, while poor kids are stuck in low income neighborhoods and schools with little to no diversity.

Homophily goes beyond just inclination; it is actually rooted in practicality. People who have had similar experiences are more understanding of each other. 

When comparing a lawyer and a barista, the two may find it difficult to relate because of their different daily life challenges such as student loan debt and childcare expenses. These limited perspectives also may affect feelings and understanding children from a lower to middle income class.

Structural Barriers: Where We Live, Learn, and Work

While homophily addresses personal preferences for specific individuals, structural forces act as social barriers that churn out the friendship gap. Most neighborhoods, schools, and places of work are divided along class lines, making it very unusual for cross-class interactions to occur.

1. Residential Segregation:Economic zoning laws and the price of housing has always split communities based on income. Upper-class families equipoise to the suburbs where schools are good, while the lower-income families are stuck in poor urban or rural areas. Sociologist Douglas Massey explains in his work “American Apartheid” the way this type of spatial segregation causes social isolation.
   
2. Educational Tracking: It’s common practice for schools to separate students into groups based on ability. Gifted programs and Advanced Placement courses are typically dominated by middle class students and create within-institutional hierarchies. A study undertaken in the 2020 Sociology of Education journal determined that tracked systems increase SES friendship gap by 40% since students in different tracks don’t interact.
   
3. Workplace Hierarchies:  Even in seemingly diverse workplaces, class divisions are apparent. There may be one building shared between low-level workers and high-level officers; however, their sociocultural spheres are disparate. In a contextual analysis by Harvard Business Review 70% of professionals admitted that they network only within their tier, creating mentorship problems for subordinates.

Such constructions produce echo chambers in which privilege and disadvantage reinforce. Political scientist Robert Putnam points out in Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, “The class gap in social capital is both the reason alone and the result of the destruction of the upward mobility escalator.”

The Ripple Effects: From Opportunities to Mental Health

There is a gap in friendship which implies that there is a social issue which affects the economy and psychology as a whole. 

1. Economic Mobility: The advancement of a society relies heavily on social capital, a type of resource contained within networks. Referrals make up 30% of hiring; however, people with lower SES don’t have connections to the job market. That’s the point in which economist Raj Chetty’s work illustrates. Children from low income families who lived in mixed class neighborhoods earned around 31% more than those kids who lived in segregated areas.
   
2. Educational Access:College students coming from a blue-collar background often miss out on ‘hidden curricula’ such as internships or professional networks that their peers from rich families take for granted. A 2021 Stanford study finds that first-gen students don’t have large enough social circles which are powerful enough to boost their careers.
   
3. Mental Health: Stress is only intensified due to social isolation. The lower SES reports having smaller support networks, which correlate with depression and rise in anxiety. In contrast, the affluent network not only provides emotional support but also essential resources like referrals to therapists or financial support.

Case Studies: The Gap in Action

1. The Ivy League Bubble: Elite universities renowned for their diversity endeavours are still socially class divided. A 2018 New York Times investigation shed light on how low income students at Harvard created their own cliques in the dinnning halls and were not allowed to join the more wealthy students during vacations or networking events.
   
2. The Gig Economy: These two platforms, Uber and TaskRabbit are making work accessible to many but widens the gap between the lower and upper classes. These gig workers only engage in short term business deals with customers and do not build any relationships which is common in the traditional workplaces.
   
3. Success Academy’s Experiment:  In New York, a charter school network deliberately combines pupils of varying socioeconomic status. This makes the pupils more tolerant and willing to be friends with more people from different cultures. This also leads to more kids enrolling in universities, proving the potential benefits of integration.

Bridging the Divide: Pathways to More Inclusive Networks

Dismantling the structural barriers and promoting intentional integration is needed to close the friendship gap.

1. Policy Interventions:
   
   • Housing: Mixed-income zoning and rent control can diversify neighborhoods. Austria’s social housing policy (in Vienna), where 60% of people live in government subsidized apartments, has decreased class separation. 
   • Education:Detracking schools and funding extracurriculars which all children can participate in, can encourage cross-SES interactions.
      
2. Workplace Initiatives:
   
   • Mentorship programs that match juniors with senior executives. 
   • Cross-departmental assignment to promote collaboration and minimize hierarchy.
     
3. Community Efforts:
   
   • Designing public settings, like libraries and parks, in a way that facilitates interaction.
   • Cross-class mentoring programs sponsored by The United Way, which help connect people of different socioeconomic status (SES ) through volunteer work.
     
4. Individual Action:
   
   • Undertaking “weak ties” – who enable many short connections outside a person’s social network – is a different approach that gets results. Mark Granovetter, a sociologist, claims that approximately 85 percent of positions are obtained because of weak ties.

A Call for Connectedness

Narrowing the friendship gap has never been a sociological curiosity, but rather an aspect which enriches equality. Individual choices certainly play a role; however, social worlds are shaped by systemic forces as well. This one has policy change, institutional bravery, and change in societal attitudes towards embracing heterogeneous relationships as its solution. 

Using the term fair seems to be substandard when dealing with gaps of such magnitude as the friendship gap. Bridging said gap is not only about fairness but about survival. Friendship across classes can contribute to creating empathetic, resilient, and innovative communities.

The challenge is straightforward: strengthening one’s imagination and building a world which nurtures healthy intersections of networks and is not restricted to social categories.