Six Degrees of Social Distancing
In lecture, we learned about Graph Theory and more specifically about how people throughout the globe are connected by the “small world” phenomenon. As part of this discussion, we covered how people are generally six social connections away from others, which is known as Six Degrees of Separation. This concept was turned into “six degrees of Kevin Bacon,” to see how many performer connections (by being in the same movie) it takes to reach Kevin Bacon.
This idea of being easily connected to others led me to wonder how such connections that are evident in the small world phenomenon relate to the spread and prevention of COVID-19. After some research, I found the article and the videos listed below, which highlight Kevin Bacon’s social distancing campaign in response to COVID-19 using the notion of six degrees.
Bacon reflects on the necessity for social distancing and self isolation in order to protect the ones we love during the pandemic. He does this by first explaining (with the theme of six degrees of freedom) how there is a potential risk of a person to have physical interaction with someone, who physically interacts with someone else—and so on—until someone else’s beloved family member tragically tests positive for COVID-19. As such, Bacon created a #IStayHomeFor campaign on social media to mitigate the spread of the virus using Six Degrees of Separation in two distinct ways. First, he asks people to follow social distancing guidelines to prevent social interactions that can easily spread the virus based on the implied notion that we are all easily connected to someone at greater risk with six degrees of physical interactions. Second, his campaign asks each follower to tag six other friends so that they can spread the campaign to others and so on in order for each person who shares the campaign to reach their six degrees of separation to another individual.
I found this campaign to be interesting, as it encourages social distancing and the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 by avoiding physical interactions of six degrees of separation, but also sharing the campaign with six degrees of separation. Thus, in a sense, it discourages six degrees from developing physically but encourages it virtually. This was an enjoyable find as it is relatable in today’s world as well as in our class discussions of the small world phenomenon.
Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41bzt2GgG-A
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon-and-covid-19-relief/