I’m late to this article, but about a month ago TechCrunch had a great post, Six Degrees of Separation is Now Three.
Couple of things stuck out to me in the article:
According to the study, the average person is now connected by just three degrees within a shared “interest” or social group instead of six. In fact, it found that people are usually a part of three main networks: family, friendship, and work.
and
According to Jeff Rodrigues, a social networking specialist that carried out the study, 97 percent of the participants said they felt more connected to people today than they ever have in the past and for older respondents, email and mobile phones were the key factors in reducing the degrees of separation. But for those in the younger generation, Facebook was the main factor. Text messaging was also mentioned as an important component in reducing degrees of separation.
This is such a fascinating study to me. I have usually found myself to be a pretty good networker and resourceful when it came to connecting with people. But now with my presence on Facebook and Twitter I have found it very easy to bypass the number of connections I used to have to make, and can usually go straight to the source. This has been very helpful in many, many ways, and I love the accessibility that social networking has allowed to many people.
Who knows, maybe 3 Degrees will eventually be outdated.
Wondering how this is changing ministry as well? Have some ideas, but not sure. More of a global village, not separated by geography.
Thoughts?
