I used to keep a memo in my Facebook account about unexpected connections among my Facebook friends, my own low-tech version of degrees of separation. In looking at a friend’s profile page, it shows the other friends that I and that person have in common. Sometimes I would notice that we shared an unexpected connection, such as a friend of mine from college knowing a friend of mine from high school. They are connected to each other independent of me. I kept a list of these “coincidences” in a handy memo that used to be available in Facebook, which showed up on my profile. I bet this is gone now. I miss it. But noticing this provided the impetus for me to ask the college friend to invite the high school friend over when I was in Providence RI. We had not seen each other for over 20 years and now we have become close friends.
Great piece. Particularly the harm that can be caused by conflating adjacency, correlation and causation. Just great examples all around. Also I remember when 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon emerged as a fun party trick!
>>“Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” after the 1993 movie based on the John Guare play of the same name.<<
A note of precision, though. John Guare’s play and the film are called *Six Degrees of Separation*.
i pretended to read the article and skimmed it but now i'm hooked on 3QD lol
I used to keep a memo in my Facebook account about unexpected connections among my Facebook friends, my own low-tech version of degrees of separation. In looking at a friend’s profile page, it shows the other friends that I and that person have in common. Sometimes I would notice that we shared an unexpected connection, such as a friend of mine from college knowing a friend of mine from high school. They are connected to each other independent of me. I kept a list of these “coincidences” in a handy memo that used to be available in Facebook, which showed up on my profile. I bet this is gone now. I miss it. But noticing this provided the impetus for me to ask the college friend to invite the high school friend over when I was in Providence RI. We had not seen each other for over 20 years and now we have become close friends.
Great piece. Particularly the harm that can be caused by conflating adjacency, correlation and causation. Just great examples all around. Also I remember when 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon emerged as a fun party trick!
>>“Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” after the 1993 movie based on the John Guare play of the same name.<<
A note of precision, though. John Guare’s play and the film are called *Six Degrees of Separation*.
Good eye! I fixed that.