Facebook Knocks "Six Degrees of Separation" Down a Few Notches (i-programmer.info)

mikejuk writes: Six degrees of separation is the, already well established, idea that any individual is connected to any other via six network nodes. New research has discovered that the average between Facebook users is just three and a half: "We know that people are more connected today than ever before. Over the past five years, the global Facebook community has more than doubled in size. Today we're announcing that during that same time period, the degrees of separation between a typical pair of Facebook users has continued to decrease to 3.57 degrees, down from 3.74 degrees in 2011. This is a significant reflection of how closely connected the world has become." This may all be true and Facebook makes us better connected, but it leaves the question of the quality of the connections open. Are Facebook friends anything like real friends?

Comments

Re:Selection Bias

[Spazmania]

Exactly. I'm not on Facebook but I know folks who are. That puts me an average 5.5 degrees of separation from anyone else who is not on Facebook but knows somebody who is. 3.5 degrees of separation between Facebook users doesn't refute 6 degrees of separation, it actually -confirms- it.

Re: I AM KEVIN BACON!

[AHuxley]

Yes the hops part was always interesting.
"Three degrees of separation: breaking down the NSA's 'hops' surveillance method" ( 29 October 2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
You may already be a winner in NSA’s “three-degrees” surveillance sweepstakes! (Jul 19, 2013 )
http://arstechnica.com/informa...
Australia is even trying it with images.
Facial recognition: Privacy advocates raise concern over 'creepy' system Government says will enhance national security (10 Sep 2015)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...

The number of hops the security forces and mil felt comfortable connecting under collect it all fits with the ~3 hop news :)