The Six Degrees of Separation: We Are All Friends of Friends of Friends of….
You may have heard about this theory before, that states that you and any other person in the world can be connected in six or less steps. Before you even start thinking about it, consider the fact that there are 7.5 billion of us.
The idea that you could be connected to any random person out of those 7.5 billion people through a series of friends or acquaintances sounds bizarre at first and to be able to do it in six steps or less, sounds totally impossible.
I mean, we seldom think about our social connections beyond our various circle of friends and colleagues which exist in our geographical location, so to think that somehow, someone in China could be a friend of a friend of a friend, is something we don’t do that often.
So, could it be possible? If yes, how come?
What Do Experiment Results Say?
Many people believe that the ‘six degrees of separation’ is nothing more than an urban myth. According to them, even if it were to be possible, there are definite exceptions like isolated tribes existing in many parts of the world.
In any case, this hasn’t stopped people from testing the idea out. In fact in 2001, Duncan Watts, a professor at Columbia University, used the magic of the internet to conduct a study to provide a conclusion once and for all. According to his results, the idea holds out.
Elsewhere, in 2007, a study was conducted on the chat data of some 240 million users of Microsoft Messenger who had had 30 billion conversations. When this data was analysed, it was concluded that the average path length among the users was 6.
There are many more experiments and studies that have been conducted but it was never definitively concluded that the six degrees of separation is accurate 100% of the times. Even then, we can’t ignore that the world is getting smaller every day, and we keep getting closer.
Shrinking of the World Through Technology
Today, a major portion of the population is online and social networking sites like facebook, twitter, reddit and others have a huge amount of users. That decreases the distance between people to a great degree by bringing users from all around the globe under a single umbrella.
Even on Steemit, we all come from various countries and didn’t know each other at all. But now that we do, we have established connections that can link each others’ social networks through just 2 steps. For example, my friend in real life, could be your friend of a friend, considering you think of me as a friend.
With transportation and communication technologies, the world really has gotten smaller and according to Neil deGrasse Tyson, the six degrees of separation is now 4-5 degrees of separation due to this advancement in technology.
In fact, in 2011, Facebook analysed its network data and found out that 92% of its users could be connected in just 5 steps. So, even if the ‘six degrees of separation’ may not have 100% accuracy or even experimental evidence, it cannot be ignored that it has some truth to it after all.
A Giant Village
Today, roughly 4 billion people are still offline and do not have access to the modern communication and transportation facilities. Imagine when all of these people get online and have access to all the facilities that the rest of the world has been enjoying for a while now. We would all be a lot closer.
In that way, the entire world would be nothing more than a giant village. This is kind of comforting and it feels like we humans were supposed to live like that in the first place. A global community of people working together for the betterment of all.
I already see the whole world as a global village and it has been the case since I was about 12 years old, 33 years ago. the advent of the internet has surely tightened the whole concept into a much more dense blob. Yet, the actual knowledge of one another seem to have changed to a much more superficial knowledge of each other. Meanwhile, there are surely some secret and unknowns coming to the surface that many would have had no clue about without the presence of social medias... ;) I also strongly believe that when one comes to the realization that we are a global family, that it is our responsibility to work for the betterment of all, since we can't "un-know" that the fact that we are one. I surely hope some of us will never have to live with the world of the internet and this type of technology and still cultivate the full spiritual spectrum of what human can do. Technology definitely gets in the way and the distractions it provides are, as you may already be aware, limitless.
Great article, thanks for sharing all this information, it is really appreciated. Namaste :)
Yes, I agree with you. You see it through positive and negative prepective. Nice! :)
Wow, what a wonderful comment. You always have the best things to say :)
I agree that we need to come to our senses about humans being a global family and in a much deeper sense as opposed to the superficial sense that we have now. I hope that time comes one day when we all "wake up" ;)
Namaste :)
Thank you for the kind words, they are appreciated. Namaste :)
Nice post :) As much as i hope this day will come soon, i think it'll only arrive the day intelligent aliens find us. Till then, humans will probably see the 0.01% that separates us rather than the 99.9% that unites us.
Hope that day comes very soon then :)
I like to play a game to go from one random Wikipedia page to another random Wikipedia page in 5 clicks. For example, open Toronto and try to click to WW2 in 5 clicks. It's a funny way to pass some time. Also, it shows that everything is related just like people, I guess.
The same can be done on youtube! Sometimes when I'm watching science videos, after some clicks in the recommended section, I'm in an entirely weird part of YouTube LOL.
Yup, the weird part of Youtube is the worst of them all, especially when it's 4 am and you have to get up at like 6 am.
haha had countless nights like those brother!! I know how it feels ;)
Just imagine that the world is getting bigger and bigger but I think there are still some people who live so alone that no one knows them, so you could never reach them with the degrees of separation. Great post, it is fun to think about it)))
Yeah, that is true. There are a lot of tribes in the world that live in total isolation. Literally no contact with the modern world. Such people cannot be reached with this idea.
Thanks for reading, it sure is fun to think about :)