It has been proposed that everyone on the planet is only six degrees of separation away from anyone else on the planet — in other words, you are six or fewer "friend of a friends" away from "the president of the United States [or] a gondolier in Venice." Only now, with the invention of the internet, that number has shrunk enormously; Facebook's research has found that "each person in the world (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half other people."
The "degrees of separation" between people are rapidly shrinking, too. In 2011, researchers at Cornell, the Università degli Studi di Milano, and Facebook calculated the average degrees of separation was more like 3.74. Facebook users have doubled since the last calculation, however, so naturally as more people use the site, we grow more interconnected.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
US foodies brace for tariff warUnder The Radar Shoppers stocking up on imported olive oil, maple syrup and European wine as price hikes loom
-
How Canadian tariffs could impact tourism to the USIn the Spotlight Canadians represent the largest group of foreign visitors to the United States. But they may soon stop visiting.
-
Entitlements: DOGE goes after Social SecurityFeature Elon Musk is pushing false claims about Social Security fraud
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliamentTHE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
-
Arab leaders embrace Egypt's Gaza rebuilding planSpeed Read The $53 billion proposal would rebuild Gaza without displacing Palestinian residents
-
Germany's conservatives win power amid far-right gainsSpeed Read The party led by Friedrich Merz won the country's national election; the primary voter issues were the economy and immigration
-
Russia frees US teacher Marc Fogel in murky 'exchange'Speed Read He was detained in Moscow for carrying medically prescribed marijuana
-
Hamas pauses Gaza hostage release, upending ceasefireSpeed Read Hamas postponed the next scheduled hostage release 'until further notice,' accusing Israel of breaking the terms of their ceasefire deal
-
Baltic States unplug from Russian grid, join EU'sSpeed Read Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are disconnecting from the Soviet-era electricity grid to join the EU's network
-
At least 11 killed in Sweden adult ed school shootingSpeed Read The worst mass shooting in Swedish history took place in Orebro
-
Who is the Hat Man? 'Shadow people' and sleep paralysisIn Depth 'Sleep demons' have plagued our dreams throughout the centuries, but the explanation could be medical
