Your personal networks thus include people you know directly (such as your friends), as well as people you know indirectly (such as your friends’ friends).Personal networks often include people of similar race, class, ethnicity, and other types of social background, but some networks have a different basis. For example, if you subscribe to an online mailing list, you are part of a network that consists of all the people on the list, people who may be of different racial or ethnic backgrounds.