The World is Shrinking
I was amazed by how small the world is when I found out my best friend in college is a close friend of my camp friend. This corresponded to the idea of “six degrees of separation” which states that the furthest distance between any two people is six social connections. During the lecture, we talked about the Bacon number, which was invented to show the close connection between all actors in Hollywood.
Now, with the invention of social media, it gives people the opportunity to get to know someone without meeting them in person. They can meet people through social media by starting conversations with people of similar interests or interesting ideas. Furthermore, with the development of artificial intelligence, almost every social media gives users a list of recommended friends who they shared something in common with. This feature is a catalyst, foster the increase of connectedness between people. In 2016, based on the data of its billion users, Facebook suggested that the average separation between two of its users has decreased to 3.57. And with the continuous improvement of technology, our world will keep shrinking which brings everyone that lives in this world closer and tighter together. Although reuniting with our long-lost friends is exciting, we need to think about the pressure that we may face in the future of being known by everyone.
https://www.digitaldoughnut.com/articles/2017/august/6-degrees-of-separation-is-now-2