Six degrees of separation

To get you started on the six degrees of separation, I'll quote Wikipedia: "Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth."

Amazing isn't it? Just the thought that there are no more than six people between you and.....well, George W. Bush, Julia Roberts or even Fidel Castro! That's how small the world has gotten. And it's no news that it's getting even smaller. So what are the factors that are literally challenging the expansiveness of the globe? I personally postulate that online social networks are one of the most significant shrinkers of the world today.

It's an analogy to globalisation. Thomas Friedman theorizes that globalisation is a flattening force, in the sense that it's making our world "flat" and giving us a level playing field in a global economy. Well, I hypothesize that our world is getting smaller and the degrees of separation between individuals are successively diminishing. Thanks to the Orkuts, Facebooks and scores of other burgeoning social networks on the world wide web.

People across various cultural and social fraternities are getting to know others way beyond the limits of their geographies and demographies. And online social networking is makng it possible. Think about it. You now know about 400 different people from 30 different countries who share the same birthday as yourself. You can now connect with individuals who share with you an obscure passion or an esoteric hobby or a vague fear. And the fact that you know them brings you a "step" closer to the acquaintances of these people, two steps closer to the acquaintances of their acquaintances and so forth. That's phenomenal if you grasp the immensity of the idea.

So what's next? One degree of separation? Maybe. But there are other natural and artificial forces which tend to subvert or neutralize the "shrinking world" phenomenon, the effects of which are trivial, yet not negligible. Population explosion for one is a disrupting factor. When there are so many people entering the world every day, you tend to fall behind on the shrinking ;) Then there's death. If an important link in your chain of global acquaintances passes away, you've lost a large chunk of contacts!

Upsetting tendencies apart, the "shrinking world phenomenon" has gathered a tremendous amount of momentum for any force to able to reverse it in the near future. I see the world as a place that'll be much smaller for me tomorrow than it'll be today. Literally.