Degrees Of Separation: an Evolving Principle
Source:
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/7/151240-degrees-of-separation/fulltext
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Since the small-world phenomenon was initially recognized, the world has evolved, and social networks have created an easier way of connecting people. A recent study suggests that, based on the huge friend networks created by Facebook users, the six degrees of separation principle may be narrowed down to 4 degrees of separation.
Of course, this study has a biased sample space, given that those who are Facebook users are easier to be reached, and more likely to have friends who are also using Facebook. This still leaves much of the world population unaccounted for, many of whom are probably in poorer and less developed communities. These people who are not connected to the world of social media in some manner are also the ones who are “harder to find”, so to speak, and drive up the average number for the average degrees of separation.
So, although this study does not necessarily argue that people are now, on average, separated by four degrees, it does allude to the idea that different, large, sub-groups in the world may be separated by less than 6 degrees. These groups can be split up geographically, or by their common use of the Internet, or possibly by religious affiliation, etc., and are representing significant populations.
On the other hand, there was a study done in 2009 trying to connect users of Microsoft Instant Messenger that “yielded an average 6.6 degrees of separation between users” which supports the initial find of the small-world principle. This differentiation between studies may have something to do with the unanswered question of what is the right definition of distance? The standard definition of how many intermediate steps separate two people seems to not hold the subtleties of density that occurs, and therefore leaves room for improvement for the true average degrees of separation, as pointed out by Professor Kleinberg, quoted in my source.
Continuing to research this phenomenon is important because it has implications for the efficiency of networks. Connecting two people, or objects, efficiently in searches will lead to lower costs and a faster world. Additionally, researching the applications of the small-world principle in the real world will give insight into how to give computers the effective searching skills that humans have, such as formulating back up plans, to better searching protocol on the internet.
Overall, although the small-world principle has been established for some time, there is still plenty of room for improvement and evolution of the idea, which will lead to tangible improvements of technological efficiency.