The idea behind 6 degrees of separation is, through “friend of a
friend” connections, everyone is only 6 steps away, by way of
introduction, from any other person. The theory was originally
presented by Hungarian author, Frigyes Karinthy, in a 1929 short
story. It was a popular play in 1993 written by John Guare and
then a trivia game called Six Degree of Kevin Bacon that Kevin
turned into a charitable organization called SixDegrees.org. The
theory was first tested in 1967 by psychologist Stanley Milgram
from 296 volunteers who were asked to send a message by
postcard, through friends and then friends of friends, to a
specific person in a Boston suburb. The idea of 6 degrees of
separation was responsible for the early thought behind social
media. Is the theory true? Here are 5 studies that prove social
media is less than 6 degrees of separation. 1. FACEBOOK PROVES
IT’S 4.74 DEGREES OF SEPARATION: Scientists at Facebook and the
University of Milan reported the average number of acquaintances
separating any two