Milgram told us in the '60's that everybody was connected to everybody through 6 degrees of separation. We could count the world among those associate to us by no more than 6 associations. Of course, my generation didn't learn about the principle through Milgram, but through the more fun and infinitely more relevant Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon*.
Now French communications provider O2 tells us differently. With the proliferation of social networking and related technologies, the 6 degrees of separation is now 3. The study shows that we are each a part of 3 major networks:
- Family
- Friends
- Work
We also fit into 5 interest network subsets that connect us, broadly defined as:
- Personal interests (hobbies, sports, music)
- Where we live
- Religion
- Sexuality (I hope there's no overlap with the family network here!)
- Politics
An interesting find from the study is that although many people have more connections, 97% of respondents said they have stronger connections now than 10-20 years ago. Could it be that the tools that broaden our networks also deepen our connections? That would be a very compelling reason to incorporate more social networking technologies and platforms into work and into meetings.
Somewhat unrelated, but check out this job hunting approach to leveraging the 3 degrees principle. What other ways are there to apply this finding and work the networks?
*Follow this link if you do nothing else productive today!
3 comments:
How can anyone resist commenting on the Kevin Bacon site?
I've used the Bacon oracle before, and found it frustrating. Whereas I would usually take 4 steps to link someone like Buster Keaton to someone like Michael Keaton, that sight does links like that in one step or two using an obscure actor that only did two movies, and then got abducted by aliens or something. Makes me feel that my abilities are lacking.
That is an outrage, indeed. This is one serious problem with automation. I hope your confidence can be salvaged, and you can still appreciate a site that has Kevin Bacon's head floating, along with the statue of David's(?).
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