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Six Degrees Of Separation Already Cut To Three? Not Really...
from the read-the-fine-print dept
It was just a couple weeks ago that we pointed to some research coming out of Microsoft suggesting that the somewhat-discredited theory of "six degrees of separation" may be accurate, though those degrees may have changed over time, thanks to increasingly powerful communications technology. Of course, if it's true that communications tech is decreasing our degrees of separation, then it should continue to decrease at a decent pace. But could we have already made the jump down to just three degrees of separation? That's the headline that's going around following a study released by UK mobile operator O2. Except, when you read the fine print, it's not quite accurate. The three degrees of separation are only true within "shared interest networks." So, for example, among folks who are fans of a certain sport, or jazz aficionados or whatever. Basically, the researchers changed the details of the experiment a great deal, narrowing the overall population for each "connection" -- so it should be no surprise that the degrees of separation are a lot smaller.
