29 July 2009 One Less Degree

Under this theory, perhaps the Six Degrees of Separation theory is no longer relevant. The adoption of social networking has made the world a far smaller place.

And an interesting side note, to get it down to Four Degrees of Separation, the average number of friends would need to be 289.

Posted by Zac Martin
No Comments
  • Anonymous
    Posted at July 29, 2009 7:12pm, 29 July Reply

    With respect, this is beyond ridiculous. If you minus just one person as you move along the chain you ignore the fact that people assemble in groups. Most of my friends know the same people that i do, they don't connect me with 119 strangers. If this wasn't the case the 'Mutual Friends' box would be purposeless.

    I'm sure that 5 or 6 degrees is probably about right but surely that should be established through something more scientific than a flawed equation that gets its authority by allowing for a 16.1 billion margin of error?

  • Zac Martin
    Posted at July 29, 2009 7:24pm, 29 July Reply

    Umm dude, if you're going to take some fun research based on a Facebook statistic seriously you're reading the wrong blog. :]

  • Nathan Bush
    Posted at July 30, 2009 10:16am, 30 July Reply

    That's pretty cool – nice one Zac

  • Andy
    Posted at July 30, 2009 11:48am, 30 July Reply

    Sweet. I'll be back… just going to see if I can get mum to tee up a few drinks with Kevin Bacon.

  • Nic Hodges
    Posted at July 30, 2009 2:36pm, 30 July Reply

    @zac with regards to the anonymous comment:

    My initial reaction to this post was "dude your maths is completely borked, and you've ignored some basic tenets of sociology and anthropology".

    But then, I figured meh, it's just a funny graphic thingy, no one will take it seriously.

    But then I realised that no, someone (probably multiple someones) will now put that graphic in a presentation, and wax lyrical about it. And it will be just another slightly incorrect slide that gets pulled out when people want to impress with their social media expertise.

    So well done on remembering to put your URL on there. 😉

  • Anonymous
    Posted at July 31, 2009 10:29pm, 31 July Reply

    WTF is Kevin Bacon?

  • Will Egan
    Posted at August 6, 2009 7:55pm, 06 August Reply

    How about one degree of seperation. If you want to talk to someone you can! You just need to know where to find them I guess!

    Check this out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjMt4xfA6to&feature=email

    Enjoy!

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