The idea caught on and sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, mathematicians and dreamers alike pursued it across the twentieth century. He bet us that, using no more than five individuals, one of whom is a personal acquaintance, he could contact the selected individual using nothing except the network of personal acquaintances. We should select any person from the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth – anyone, anywhere at all.
One of us suggested performing the following experiment to prove that the population of the Earth is closer together now than they have ever been before. The Hungarian author wrote in a short story titled Chains of a world where it would be possible to pass a message between any two people by way of common acquaintances:Ī fascinating game grew out of this discussion. It suggests that there is more to connect us than to divide us, and this humanist perspective found its foundations nearly a century ago in the work of Frigyes Karinthy. The idea that every person in the world might be connected to any other person in the world by just a few steps is an appealing one. Last week, though, and in the run up to Valentine’s Day, Facebook released some new research that put the lie to a long-held cultural truth: the six degrees of separation, it seemed, is now outdated.Īnd unlike reports on the ubiquity of ‘lol’ and the mental health of people who use Facebook Messenger, there are some pretty startling implications for social media security and social media privacy. If you’re a date geek and a social media freak – or both – there was plenty of great research to dive into. There was even a report on online laughter with a compelling case made that ‘haha’ is not the same as ‘hehe’ or ‘lol’. There was research reporting that more gay Americans are coming out on Facebook than ever before.
There was a study that demonstrated that people who communicate online feel better than those who are online but not communicating with others. In recent weeks Facebook has revealed some incredibly interesting research from its internal labs.
Today we dive into one of the social networks that has done so much to bring people closer and, yes, sometimes drive couples apart: Facebook. All this week on The DOZ Blog we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day.