Six degrees and all that

Most people have heard of the concept of six degrees of separation, namely that any two people are separated by six links, or people that they know. There was even a movie by that name back in the early 90s, which I saw with my friend Barb in a cool movie theater on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. I can't remember the name of the theater to save my life, but we liked it because it served beer.

Six degrees plays an interesting role in Facebook, the social networking site. I joined Facebook back in November, at the arm-twisting suggestion of my friend Evelyn, who pretty much said that I would never hear from her again unless I joined Facebook. To my surprise, I have enjoyed my experience thus far, catching up with people with whom I had lost contact and just staying abreast of my friends and their activities (although some people take the updating WAY too far - do you really need or want me to know what you are doing every minute of the day?).

Thanks to Facebook, we have our own little six degrees of Facebook example. The aforementioned Evelyn attended a Catholic grade school in Florida for 3rd through 5th grades. Last month, she created a Facebook group for the school and has received several requests from alums to join, not just people she knew as her classmates. A few weeks ago she received a request from a man that she didn't think she remembered from school, but she approved his request. As she scanned his list of friends, or people with whom he is connected on Facebook, she recognized one of the names...none other than Barb, whom I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

So although Evelyn does not know Barb, Barb knows me, who knows Evelyn, who went to school with a guy who knows Barb. To quote Evelyn: "This whole six degrees thing is, well, real and scary."