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We're Practically Friends!: Only 4.74 Degrees Of Separation Between You And Any Other Facebooker

November 22, 2011 / facebook, friends, i don't believe it, interesting, people, small world, social networking, the shortest distance between two people is when they havin' sex!, the world's getting smaller but i keep on getting bigger, we're practically holding hands!

facebook-degrees-of-separation.jpg

According to Facebook, there are only 4.74-degrees of separation between you and any other user on the planet, making our world that much smaller and natural resources that much scarcer. "That's not how that works." You shut up!

"When considering even the most distant Facebook user in the Siberian tundra or the Peruvian rainforest, a friend of your friend probably knows a friend of their friend," wrote the Facebook data team in a blog post explaining its research.


[The average degrees of separation] used to be six. But thanks to the increasing popularity of social networking, humanity has become more connected over time. Where in 2008 the distance from any one Facebook user was, on average, 5.28 hops, it's now 4.74, the company's researchers said.

First of all, there's no such thing as a 0.74 degree of separation. You have to round that up to the next number unless Facebook is counting amputees in which they're the most insensitive social network in the world. Not that we didn't already know that. So yeah, there are only FIVE (5!) people separating you and I on Facebook. You know what that means? There are only five people we have to kill before we can be together. I'm gonna wear your skin like a windbreaker!

Facebook Claims 4.74 Degrees of Kevin Bacon [foxnews]

Thanks to LeftRightLeft, who, despite the name, is actually a terrible marcher. Can skip like nobody's business though.

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There are Comments
  • Stephen Dias

    Well this is lame, wasnt it like 7 degrees before? And only because we have more laws against locking people away from society?

  • Juan Ruiz

    So i know a girl who knows some guy called Justin Timberly fan club who knows another girl... see.. i am 3 degrees to know lot of hot girls

  • Does 5 degrees of separation mean 5 people between us or 4? (4 between makes five steps to get there..)
    Aaaargh You're messing with my head GW!

  • What, no Kevin Bacon jokes?

  • doctorpeppor

    Awe snap, that means me and those terrorists on that deck of cards are practically homies.  That means I should be able to borrow money from Bill Gates and kick it with that one chick from all those movies.  NOW IS THE TIME TO CALL IN THE FAVORS!

  • Soo if FB automatically has everyone in everyone's friend-list then that will count as the whole world (who uses FB) is connected with each other?? Just because I have an option to send some guy on FB a message that he may or may not read doesn't make it any different from me sending oldschool mail to anyone in the world, if that's pure connectivity then there are no degrees of separation between anyone since plenty of years ago.

  • George Ragen

    maybe researchers shouldn't use Facebook for something like this. The only reason people are so connected is there are so many dumbasses who accept friend requests from people they don't even know. Sometimes because they want a bigger friends list.

  • Jeremy Rees

    I can honestly say I dont know anybody in that picture.

  • What about that guy?

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