Group Info Name: Six Degrees of Separation

Type: Common Interest - Friends

Description: **Do NOT join this group unless you have read rules and meet the
requirements**

To invite friends, click the "invite people to join" tab to the right of the
screen and check the boxes next to your friends names. Make sure they are actually
your friends.

The small world phenomenon (also known as the small world effect) is the
hypothesis that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of
social acquaintances. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase six degrees of
separation after a 1967 small world experiment by social psychologist Stanley
Milgram which suggested that two random US citizens were connected on average by a
chain of six acquaintances. That is, a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
of a friend knows the president of the United States, or the Queen of the
Netherlands, or the president of France or Osama and so on…

However, after more than forty years its status as a description of heterogeneous
social networks (such as the aforementioned "everyone in the world") still remains
an open question. Little research has been done in this area since the publication
of the original paper.

VERY IMPORTANT: You cannot request to join this group! Please do not request to
join this group...you can ONLY join by being invited and accepting the invitation.
If this theory is to be confirmed, you will eventually be invited by one of your
friends. If you have a friend who has joined this group, then you may join.
Facebook doesn't let me block everyone from joining while enabling those who join
to invite friends therefore this group must be open. So, PLEASE DO NOT join unless
you are friends with any of the members of this group. Members, please do not
forget to invite some of you friends.

THIS IS HOW THIS WORKS: It is somewhat unclear if it is possible to demonstrate

the theory of “six degrees of separation" using a facebook group because we cannot
differentiate the tangible “degrees"… However, the small world effect/ phenomenon
can still be demonstrated. If I invite all of my friends to join and they invite
theirs to join and so on, then through such acquaintances, it seems that we will
be able to reach the whole world (world in this case being the facebook community
ONLY THROUGH FRIENDS) (also, this is different than groups like "the largest
facebook group ever" because such groups do not show that everyone in the group
are a friend of a friend of a friend...etc).

However, this group demonstrates that we are all a friend of a friend (...and so
on) and that we are acquainted with one another through friends possibly by means
of the “Six Degrees of Separation" theory. Meaning that eventually everyone in
this group has a connection through a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
of a friend to me.

I encourage those who are interested to contemplate the idea of the “Six Degrees
of Separation" on the discussion boards and whether you find it plausible or not.
It seems that while this group cannot prove or disprove the theory of the “Six
Degrees of Separation", it may however demonstrate that the whole world can
possibly be reached through a short chain of acquaintances. It will be interesting
to see how this works out. Feel free to use the wall to tell of personal
experiences and interesting connections.

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So I thought it'd be fun to have a thought of the day section, so here it is...

Thought of the Day: Ever wonder why gossip spreads so fast? Watch what you say,
guard your tongue from Lashon Hara.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of those affected by the
massacre at Virginia Tech. Dr. Liviu Lebrescu is a holocaust survivor and hero who
risked his life to save the lives of his students. Read his story here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2305652350
Contact Info Email: RyanDosetareh@gmail.com
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_phenomenon

Recent News
Try connecting yourself with others on the Discussion boards, it's fun.

When this group reaches 300,000 I will randomly select 6 people (these people
being the 6 that show up under the members section of this page) and I will try to
link those six subjects to me to test out the theory. The average of the Degrees
of Separation should not be more than 6.

OK, here it is:

RYAN DOSETAREH
1. Adam Klien
2. Jeremy Adler
3. Josh Twersky
4. Rachel Saks
LAUREL CONDON

RYAN DOSETAREH
1.Brandon White
2. Christina Carmen Chiknas
3. Sarah Steiner
4. Jennifer Forsthoefel
5. Pippa Simmons
6. Jake Armstrong
CAELEIGH BROHM

RYAN DOSETAREH
1.Ben Perlow
2.Lauren Bowles
3.Brett Clark's
4.Kendrick Brinson
5.Annie Agnone
6.Katie Mercer
AMANDA FORTIER

RYAN DOSETAREH
1. Aaron Wersing
2. Michelle Ahoobim
3. Jordan Gimelstein
4. Faye Elizabeth Maiman
CAITLIN PRINCE

RYAN DOSETAREH
1. Darren Tobin
2. Robin Goodman
3. Lauren Kuncewitch
4. Matt Cardona
5. Eric King
BRIAN LOMASKY

RYAN DOSETAREH
1. Jonathan Freinkel
2. David Blane
3. Ashley Gross'
RYAN MCGETTIGAN

Average Degree of Separation: 4.67

I will redo this once the group reaches 400,000.

MATHEMATICAL PERSPECTIVE:
This is a post I saw earlier by a member of the group. I am not sure that it shows
anything more than the possibility of reaching the worlds population through 6
rounds...

Post #37 Nick McIntosh (Kettering) wrote

on Feb 1, 2007 at 5:21 PM
Yeah, the 'Mathmatical Proof' is nonsense. What is the real math behind the six
degrees thing, then?

How about this:

The sixth root of the CIA's July 2006 world population estimate of 6,525,170,264
is 43.228. So lets be humanitarian and round up to 44.

44^6 = 7,256,313,856

I am certain beyond any doubt that I know more than 44 people that don't know each
other. That may not be true for everyone, but as long as the world average (of the
number of people one knows, that don't know each other) is above 43.228,
statistical reasoning suggests that the theory holds true.
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