The Third Degree

September 7, 2008 9:20 PM

The tech business world has forever hyped the idea of "virtual communities," but it appears that the internet is actually making us more connected. Back in 1967, Stanley Milgram (of Milgram Experiment fame), proposed that we are all connected, on average, by six degrees of separation. The idea rapidly entered the popular consciousness, spawning a parlor game, and a hit play (and subsequent movie.)

When it was discovered that Milgram never verified his hypothesis, others did. However, a brand new study has shown that only three degrees are necessary within a shared interest network. While it's easy to poke fun at the narcissism of the Facebook and MySpace generation, the communities that they create may actually bring people closer together. (previously on Metafilter.)

posted by CheeseDigestsAll (10 comments total)

From the verification of the hypothesis: only 384 e-mail chains (3 percent) actually found their way to the targets� inboxes. So we fall into one of two graphs: (1) A connected graph with the average path being 6 edges, or (2)A disconnected graph. Colour me skeptical of the original hypothesis. And even more skeptical of the newer one.

Here's my question, to other users of Facebook. How many friends do you have that you don't know. And of those people, how many would you feel comfortable asking for a job, or for a favour, or for etc. [For those of you who run reasonably popular blogs/etc and thus have a fanbase, I'm excluding you because you don't count. Er, count more. Count differently at least.]

Danah Boyd probably has some good reason on if people act closer together, I can't remember at the moment.
posted by Lemurrhea at 9:54 PM on September 7, 2008

Rather than looking at how many steps it takes random strangers to contact each other (how useful is that as a metric) how about some nice, thorough research on how the internet and other new technologies are supporting and enlarging our existing social networks. For example:

-Internet users have somewhat larger social networks than non-users.

-People who email the vast majority (80% - 100%) of their core ties weekly are in
phone contact with 25% more of their core ties than non-emailers. (And email does not seduce people away from F2F contact.)

-The internet’s role is important in explaining the greater likelihood of online users getting help as
compared to non-users.

The full report, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, can be found here.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 11:25 PM on September 7, 2008

it is the timeless human desire for attention that emerges as the dominant theme of these vast virtual galleries.

I dont quite see why listing things like favourite bands, books, movies, activities etc on social networking sites is necessarily narcissistic, as the authors claim.

A large part of the point behind these sites is to potentially extend your circle of friends by finding others with similar or compatible interests, and there's no way of doing that without posting some stuff about yourself.

I see that kind of thing as a quick & effective shortcut around party conversations along the lines of "so, seen any good movies lately?" or "Oh, so you're a reader? Who are your favourite authors?" - it's a bit of basic background info on what kinds of things people are into.

Apart from that, my personal use of those kinds of sites is as one particular channel for keeping in touch with people I know in real life. And by that, I generally mean people who are reasonably good friends (I very rarely add random strangers who I've only met once or twice, and even more rarely add completely "virtual" friends). Considering that friends are often quizzing me (and vice versa) on what I'm reading or listening to at the moment, it makes sense to spend, like, five seconds searching for & adding today's book or CD or movie etc. It would be kinda narcissistic if I expected everybody to care, but I do know that some friends are interested, and I am likewise interested to see what they're up to.

But yeah, connection. Apart from browsing peoples' interests, I think social networking sites are actually reasonably good enablers of real-life activities & relationships, especially as a common channel for people to flag which events (festivals, parties, concerts) etc they're attending or organising.

On the degrees of separation thing, it's interesting, the extent to which you can discover connections between people you'd never have guessed otherwise, like when somebody you know from one circle turns out to be sharing a house with an ex's current boyfriend, that sort of thing.

That's quite topical, actually: I was talking to a friend just the other night, commenting about how weird it is to look up some completely random name on facebook, and see these listings of their friends - entire circles, in-jokes, lives & relationships that exist out there somewhere, completely unrelated to you...I typed in a name to demonstrate, and the second or third person who popped up on their friends list had me going "holy shit! i know that girl!"
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:33 PM on September 7, 2008

Here's my question, to other users of Facebook. How many friends do you have that you don't know.

i think five out of around eighty - two friends-of-friends that I somehow haven't met yet, one overseas member of a sporting group i belong to, and a coupla mefites.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:39 PM on September 7, 2008

See also this New York Times Magazine story related to this subject.
posted by beagle at 7:37 AM on September 8, 2008

Here's my question, to other users of Facebook. How many friends do you have that you don't know. And of those people, how many would you feel comfortable asking for a job, or for a favour, or for etc.

Out of two hundred plus-or-minus, there are exactly two of mine whom I have never met, both part of a fan group for a somewhat obscure author. On the other hand, there are several friends I went to school with and have not seen in twenty years; I suspect I would not be inclined to ask any of them for a job/favour, etc.

Facebook may produce misleading results when considering the degree of closeness between friends, a catch-all term that here applies to everything from the person you have been sleeping with for the last fifteen years to your Little league teammate whom you haven't seen since you were nine.

I have seen a number of kvetching pieces in several newspapers asking why so-called friends would need Facebook to keep in touch with one another, because real friends talk all the time. I suppose that is true, but every statement is true if you get to redefine the terms. There are plenty of former classmates, co-workers and so forth on Facebook whom I haven't talked with in years, but if they move to Australia or have twins or something, I am interested enough to hear about this and look at some photos. That's were the real value lies, in my view: connecting with acquaintances.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:55 AM on September 8, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I have seen a number of kvetching pieces in several newspapers asking why so-called friends would need Facebook to keep in touch with one another, because real friends talk all the time.

But that kind of social contact with friends isn't realistic in many communities, is it? My two best female friends -- the ones that grok me and with whom we have the "you're the one I call if I accidentally kill someone and I'm panicking" kind of bond -- don't live in this city, so I don't speak with them every day. One doesn't live in this state -- the other doesn't even live in this COUNTRY.

But that's me. I do get selective when accepting friends requests on Facebook -- if I have known them for more than one month at any point in my life (work colleagues, people I went to school with, etc), then yes. If they are just the "friend of a friend", then no. If they are someone I know but actively dislike, then also no (that happened only the once).

So there are only 50 people on my list -- so what.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:06 AM on September 8, 2008

Whoops, wasn't quite finished with that thought -- "so there are 50 people on my list: so what. I know all 50 of them, and I'm more comfortable that way."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:07 AM on September 8, 2008

Suddenly this year, I felt it was ridiculous for someone my age to be on Facebook, though there's probably not a rational reason for me to feel this way. Forums and places like MeFi I don't mind. Turning myself into endless soundbites I do mind, thus I'll never be found on Twitter. It's confusing; I don't want to be left behind, but I don't want to be the online version of Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused, either.

Maybe at my age one lets sites like Facebook go and leaves that stuff to the kids. I closed out that account as well as my Friendster and MySpace accounts, both of which I had for years. All I got were endless plugs to see showcases from former fellow acting class students and the occasional message from one of my younger relatives who'd found and friended me. I had 200+ "friends" on each account with less than 10 people who I actually spoke to or hung out with on a regular basis. Feh.



I'm not even 40! Yet the interwebs make me feel like a geezer (in the American sense, of course)!
posted by droplet at 10:19 AM on September 8, 2008

Suddenly this year, I felt it was ridiculous for someone my age to be on Facebook, though there's probably not a rational reason for me to feel this way.

I put of joining for years for effectively the same reason; friendster and MySpace hadn't done much for me, so why this? But about two days after I'd been dumped, a friend of mine sent me an invitation to join Facebook "because it may cheer you up". So I joined. And for two weeks it was FANTASTIC, because all these people I hadn't heard from in years were friending me and writing me notes and "I haven't heard from you in years, how are you" and yadda yadda and it was EXACTLY what I needed in my breakup-induced funk.

Now, it's two months later, I'm over the breakup, and it's all gotten kind of "meh". It actually WAS helpful recently for one thing -- I'm writing an essay about something that happened to me in Jr. High, and mention two of my friends from that period. One of those friends and I stayed in contact through school and beyond, the other didn't -- until she friended me on Facebook. So I was able to ask both said friends whether they wanted me to use their real names in this.

But that's been the best practical use I've made of it since the initial "oh, see, people do love me after all" honeymoon period.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:46 AM on September 8, 2008