For a good while now, I've always wondered how the theory of Six Degrees of Separation has been affected (or perhaps evolved) into a lesser figure through the explosion of social networking and our predilection of lowering barriers to making friends within the online space.
For those, like myself who considered this to be a reasonably recent theory, it actually goes way back (pre-interweb) to the late 60's and some research by Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers, who engaged in a study where people were asked to send a letter (via acquaintances) to a Boston stockbroker. Of the 300 or so letter chains that were sent, the average number of separation degrees was 6.2!
Rather than changing this figure (one would initially consider it being lowered), the internet has merely gone to validate (beyond doubt), that the theory is correct and that we are all connected in this way.
Probably the most conclusive research recently undertaken was using online chat, where Microsoft researchers studied the addresses of 30bn instant messages sent during a single month in 2006 through their instant messaging application....a more planetary research piece than the localised one carried out 40 or so years previously!
So with this theory well and truly validated, we really can say "It's a small world".
For those, like myself who considered this to be a reasonably recent theory, it actually goes way back (pre-interweb) to the late 60's and some research by Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers, who engaged in a study where people were asked to send a letter (via acquaintances) to a Boston stockbroker. Of the 300 or so letter chains that were sent, the average number of separation degrees was 6.2!
Rather than changing this figure (one would initially consider it being lowered), the internet has merely gone to validate (beyond doubt), that the theory is correct and that we are all connected in this way.
Probably the most conclusive research recently undertaken was using online chat, where Microsoft researchers studied the addresses of 30bn instant messages sent during a single month in 2006 through their instant messaging application....a more planetary research piece than the localised one carried out 40 or so years previously!
So with this theory well and truly validated, we really can say "It's a small world".
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