You Are Just 4.74 Steps Away From Everyone on Facebook
Facebook is shaking up the common theory of six degrees of separation. Kevin Bacon is closer than ever.
An analysis of Facebook's 721 million members has revealed that you are connected to any one member on Facebook via a maximum average of 4.74 hops. Really?
This bit of information comes via a lengthy post called on Facebook's Anatomy of Facebook data blog. The analysis is the most comprehensive so far, reaching, statistically, more than 10 percent of the world's population. Facebook also noted that 69 billion friendships were evaluated. The conclusion that there are fewer than previously expected jumps between users is based on the finding that, as you can see above, only 10 percent of people have less than 10 friends, 20 percent have less than 25, while 50 percent (the median) have over 100 friends. The average number of friends is 190.
If all those friend relations are connected, Facebook discovered that though 99.6 percent of all friendship pairs are connected by paths with 5 degrees (6 hops), 92 percent are connected by only four degrees (5 hops). Not surprisingly, as we get more connected, the number of hops is decreasing: The average distance in 2008 was 5.28 hops, now it is at 4.74.
This number, of course, feels somewhat strange, at least if you use the word "friendship" connections. Is any person on this globe only 4.74 friendship hops away? No. Perhaps we should consider them contact hops, but not friendship hops. Many of us may have contacts who have collected thousands of "friends" and may serve as distribution pillars of contacts. What's more, we all may have contacts we really don't know or never interacted with.
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I don't see anything "above". Did you plagiarize this article and forget to proof your theft?
I don't see anything "above". Did you plagiarize this article and forget to proof your theft?
Try clicking the source link...
I doubt I'll encounter someone from the other side of the planet even if I reached 9 degrees.. Especially someone not speaking my native language.
Try clicking the source link...
If it's from the source link, everything from the source should be in quotes. If it's not in quotes, it is implied that he wrote it himself. Since it's not in quotes and he's referring to something "above" to me, it implies something is very, very wrong.
dang, i dont even use facebook but i have 21 friends on it, how is that possible.
If Facebook knows so much about me, they would know that those people aren't my "Friends".
I doubt I'll encounter someone from the other side of the planet even if I reached 9 degrees.. Especially someone not speaking my native language.
You will be surprised. I'm on the other side of the planet and I'm only 3 hops away from Bush, Obama, Hu Jintao or even Gaddafi & Sadam Hussein (before they where killed). None of them speaks my native language.
six degrees of inner mas turbulence.
That's because people connects to more than real friends and family and tend to accept "third-parties" what shortens the paths. But out of those 100 friends... it's likely that 50% are friends and family and the other 50% is "other contacts"
Just like in LinkedIn you try to get to connect to everyone in order to have more chances of getting a job.
I am closer to everyone without using Facebook.
Didn't need to use it until now.
Heard this news yesterday... on Facebook
Heard this news yesterday... on Facebook
Source of the story = Facebook
Left FB a while ago and never looked back, too intrusive and dont care about what Jenny and Johnny are doing every minute of the day.
Great opportunity for a pyramid scheme.
People have 190 friends? That made me laugh. Those are real friends they are just people added to their list so they can feel popular on Facebook.
Soooooo.. Mark Zuckerberg is my Friend's Friend's Friend's Friend's Friend???
I don't have a facebook account sooo I don't think that applies to me
this is BS not everyone is on facebok, NO ONE is 4.74 steps from me cause I am NOT on the generation destroying Facebook
You know someone on Facebook, they are 4.74 steps away from everyone so therefore you are 5.74 steps from everyone, it's still a pretty small world.
"maximum average of 4.74 hops"
So, is it a maximum, or an average? Surely it must be an average, as there isn't just .74 of a user. But what is "maximum" supposed to indicate? Did they take separate averages? Of what?
What's a hop by the way?
wow...190 friends.....i hope that at least 5 of those are true friends
There is a dangerous assumption being made that one's "friends" on facebook are people you actually know. There are plenty of people I knew (past tense deliberate) who are serial friend-adders and add people they have never even talked to.
i don't think that's true as most people are in stuff like loops where people are usually connected to others the same people their friends are connected to ex. all my classmates are friends to eachother or the whole family are friends
this makes this review look strange
the minimum number of steps (if everyone had a different friend than the previous one or other branched friends) = log(avg. no. of friends, total facebook users) = log (190, 800000000) = 3.907 i think loops cancel most of that so it could reach 15-20 steps or so (maybe infinite for some people/groups)
BTW i never used facebook and i'll never use it
Even 4 hopps for friends is 2 much
I disagree. I'm not on facebook, so for me that would be 0.
Take that, Facebook!