Comments on: How many degrees of separation are there now?

By: Modern Marketplace « Go Ask Alice

Modern Marketplace « Go Ask Alice — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:20:43 +0000

[...] uncouth to shun the Internet, or get to point where it is impossible to subsist with out it? The Wikinomics blog recently posted about this very thing, mulling over the idea that the world is getting smaller and [...]

By: Wilson Haddow

Wilson Haddow — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:34:34 +0000

Denis, my mistake I should have said “and the time to rapidly find…. has decreased”

By: Denis

Denis — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:24:23 +0000

Question – why/how has the “ability to rapidly find and contact an individual… decreased”? If anything, I would think it’s the opposite.

Malcolm – did you see the post/ article on Facebook vs. MySpace (difference in user bases)?

By: Wilson Haddow

Wilson Haddow — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:34:18 +0000

“Is the role of super connectors waning in influence?” – yes and no. The role of individuals as Super Connectors is waning but the role of social networks as Super Connectors is rapidly increasing. We no longer look to a person as providing the enabling pathway to a person/network etc. we now seek out the network that will be best positioned to assist. Therefore, maybe we need to refine the definition of a Super Connector.

So is the world getting smaller? – no. My rational is that the number of options has increased by orders of magnitude even though the ability to rapidly find and contact an individual has decreased. So now we have the issue of sorting through the multiple options and deciding when we have sufficient information to make a decision – this issue was minimal when we identified the original 6 degrees of separation.

By: Malcolm Ryder

Malcolm Ryder — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:34:22 +0000

(This note is regarding the original posting, not other comments…) While I am a serious consumer and advocate of the current technologies at our disposal, I am borderline horrified by what appears (at least superficially) to be an aggressive mythologizing of the “community” of technology users. What is the myth that I refer to? The myth of the privileged “We” being “everyone”. “Everyone” really means, “everyone who matters.” In the history of politics, this formula is the core of the justifications for class, racism and The Like. Why is the exuberant denial of restricted technology access and unequal opportunity across society and culture so easily tolerated by otherwise serious thinkers who want to understand or evangelize the importance of internetworking? In the 21st century in the western world, this access and opportunity is the Money, and it is frightening to see the repetition of abuses that we are already so familiar with from history. That said, it seems only obvious that any special interest group, suddenly equipped with better tools, will first indulge and ramp up its own special interest — whether the interest be “being a teen”, “being a scientist”, “being a salesman”, or whatever. It’s what our northern/western culture is like, after all, whether characteristic of other cultures or not. What would be truly interesting to comment on is how increased power for special interest affects the predisposition to share (or not) the wealth with “the Others”…

By: Dwayne Phillips

Dwayne Phillips — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:06:48 +0000

I agree with the concept that the degrees of separation are shrinking. I first noticed this four years ago when my oldest child graduated high school and “went off to” college. He would come home and tell me about how the different universities that his far flung high school friends would handle hurricanes, snow storms, and other anomolies differently. How did he know? Easy, email.

Kids stay connected with high school friends much longer and deeper than I (age 48) ever did.