Facebook: Honey, I Shrunk The Distance
Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, but Social Networking Giant, Facebook seems to have shortened the distance between two random strangers. A few months ago, Yahoo put the theory to test on Facebook following a proper scientific code.
Facebook is currently home to roughly 750 million users worldwide, each user averaging 130 friends. Facebook Researchers swam through an odd 721 million active users, aggregating to 69 billion friendships between them. The number of friends per user had a varied difference, extending from one friend to thousands. The median for this test was decided to be 100.
#-Link-Snipped-#
The traditional test for Six Degrees Of Separation links how many friends of friends it takes to link one stranger to the other. The original test conducted in 1960s by Sociologist Stanley Milgram, found an average of 5.2 intermediate people in the US. Though, he explained the rule of five intermediate people as five intermediate acquaintance circles and not five specific people.
The Researchers applied the same principle by systematically testing how many friend connections it requires to link two users on Facebook. Globally, they found a peak at five jumps, implying that four degrees of separation resided between two users. The time was shorter for linking people living in the same country, typically only involving a maximum of three users, including large countries like USA.
Social Networking has brought us closer, no doubt.
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#Â Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#
Facebook is currently home to roughly 750 million users worldwide, each user averaging 130 friends. Facebook Researchers swam through an odd 721 million active users, aggregating to 69 billion friendships between them. The number of friends per user had a varied difference, extending from one friend to thousands. The median for this test was decided to be 100.
#-Link-Snipped-#
The traditional test for Six Degrees Of Separation links how many friends of friends it takes to link one stranger to the other. The original test conducted in 1960s by Sociologist Stanley Milgram, found an average of 5.2 intermediate people in the US. Though, he explained the rule of five intermediate people as five intermediate acquaintance circles and not five specific people.
The Researchers applied the same principle by systematically testing how many friend connections it requires to link two users on Facebook. Globally, they found a peak at five jumps, implying that four degrees of separation resided between two users. The time was shorter for linking people living in the same country, typically only involving a maximum of three users, including large countries like USA.
Social Networking has brought us closer, no doubt.
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#Â Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#
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