6 Degrees of Separation
The theory of 6 degrees of separation states that everyone is only 6 degrees or links away from anyone in the world by way of introduction, which is explained further in the theory’s Wikipedia page. This was idealized by Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 and never truly proved, but accepted by popular culture. At the time there was no way of testing the idea, but in the past 6 years Facebook has been using its wealth of data to test the popular theory. It turns out that Karinthy was relatively close. Facebook assessed the relationships of 721 million active users, analyzing 69 billion connections, and found the average degrees of separation to be 4 degrees of separation. They found that 99.6% of users are connected by only 5 degrees, and 92% are connected by only four degrees. Though the data from 2011 was only a fraction of the world population, it gave a quantitative backing to the popular theory.
This data shoes how powerful local bridges are since by definition they connect two nodes that would otherwise have multiple links between them therefore a larger degree of separation. If not for these aspects of networks the average degree of separation would be much higher because you would be forced to go through a larger path to get to your intended person. This is especially important for the world’s social network because the lower the degree of separation, the closer you are to important things such as job offers, potential relationships, and potential friendships. It is also humbling knowing that although the world has an insanely large population, most of us are only 5 mutual friends away from each other.
Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation
Original Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8906693/Facebook-cuts-six-degrees-of-separation-to-four.html