6 Degrees to 4.7 Degrees of Separation and Narrowing
Monday, 28 Apr 2025, 18:02
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jim McCrory, Thursday, 1 May 2025, 09:45
"The soul should always stand ajar..."
— Emily Dickinson
One
summer afternoon, my wife and I found ourselves wandering through the heart of
Edinburgh. The city was alive—the Edinburgh International Festival in full
swing—its streets a river of faces, music, and colour. As we strolled along The
Royal Mile, weaving through the crowds, I glanced around at the endless tide of
people and turned to my wife.
"It's
strange," I said, "but we're connected, somehow, to everyone
here."
I
was thinking about the old idea of six degrees of separation—the notion that,
at most, six social connections link any two people on Earth. It first caught
public imagination back in 1929, when Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy penned
a short story exploring the theory.
But
our connection to strangers, I realised, isn't just about having some ancient
Celt in our family tree, waving a claymore across the misty glens. It’s
something closer, more immediate. The idea that through friends, colleagues, or
even a neighbour's brother-in-law, we are just a few steps away from anyone on
the planet.
And
sometimes life offers moments that make you believe it.
2008:
An Auspicious Coincidence
It
was during the depths of the British recession. I had flown to Krakow,
Poland—my first time there—with the heavy purpose of visiting Auschwitz. One
evening, sitting in a bustling square, I shared a meal with some friends, the
laughter and chatter of other diners surrounding us like a low tide.
Across
the way, I noticed a young man—maybe 22—stealing glances at me. He watched,
hesitated, and finally stood up, slipping on his jacket. As he made to leave,
he veered toward me, almost awkwardly.
"Excuse
me," he said. "Did you give a lecture in the Scotland about young
people in crisis?"
I
blinked, surprised. "Yes," I said. "How on earth do you know
that?"
He
smiled and explained: he had a copy of the lecture on CD, passed to him by a
friend of a friend.
"It
was your voice," he said. "I recognised your voice."
Six
degrees of separation? Sometimes, it feels like only one.
In
2011, Facebook researchers analysed the entire network of Facebook users — over
700 million people at the time — and found that the average separation between
any two users was only 4.74 degrees.That’s even closer than the
original theory suggested! It was living proof, using modern data, that the
world really is incredibly connected.
Image generated with the assistance of Microsoft Copilot
6 Degrees to 4.7 Degrees of Separation and Narrowing
"The soul should always stand ajar..."
— Emily Dickinson
One summer afternoon, my wife and I found ourselves wandering through the heart of Edinburgh. The city was alive—the Edinburgh International Festival in full swing—its streets a river of faces, music, and colour. As we strolled along The Royal Mile, weaving through the crowds, I glanced around at the endless tide of people and turned to my wife.
"It's strange," I said, "but we're connected, somehow, to everyone here."
I was thinking about the old idea of six degrees of separation—the notion that, at most, six social connections link any two people on Earth. It first caught public imagination back in 1929, when Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy penned a short story exploring the theory.
But our connection to strangers, I realised, isn't just about having some ancient Celt in our family tree, waving a claymore across the misty glens. It’s something closer, more immediate. The idea that through friends, colleagues, or even a neighbour's brother-in-law, we are just a few steps away from anyone on the planet.
And sometimes life offers moments that make you believe it.
2008: An Auspicious Coincidence
It was during the depths of the British recession. I had flown to Krakow, Poland—my first time there—with the heavy purpose of visiting Auschwitz. One evening, sitting in a bustling square, I shared a meal with some friends, the laughter and chatter of other diners surrounding us like a low tide.
Across the way, I noticed a young man—maybe 22—stealing glances at me. He watched, hesitated, and finally stood up, slipping on his jacket. As he made to leave, he veered toward me, almost awkwardly.
"Excuse me," he said. "Did you give a lecture in the Scotland about young people in crisis?"
I blinked, surprised. "Yes," I said. "How on earth do you know that?"
He smiled and explained: he had a copy of the lecture on CD, passed to him by a friend of a friend.
"It was your voice," he said. "I recognised your voice."
Six degrees of separation? Sometimes, it feels like only one.
In 2011, Facebook researchers analysed the entire network of Facebook users — over 700 million people at the time — and found that the average separation between any two users was only 4.74 degrees. That’s even closer than the original theory suggested! It was living proof, using modern data, that the world really is incredibly connected.
Image generated with the assistance of Microsoft Copilot