Dear readers....
When Hungarian author, Frigyes Karinthy wrote on on the idea that every person in this planet Earth can be connected to anybody else, perhaps he didn't realize the impact on our social life today. He hypothesise that any two individuals can be connected through at most 5 acquaintances.
As our life get more modern and complicated, actually our world get smaller due to technological advancement especially in telecommunication industry. The 6 degree of separation theory, became the basis of several famous social networking application such as Facebook, Linkedin, etc. In fact, Facebook which has 4.5 million users (as of April 2007, and counting.. cause I just joined in), calculate that the average separation of their users is 5.73 degrees, with the farthest separation is 12.
Several high rating TV series adopt this idea, such as LOST, Six Degrees, Lonely Planet Six Degrees. in LOST, all the characters are link and connected to each other in connection that they don't realized or understood. International award-winning and local film also embrace this sociological idea, such as Crash, Babel.. and CINTA..
So perhaps, if one day I meet you on the street, restaurant, bus station, or anywhere else...just remember, we are no stranger... we are friends within 5 steps away or less.
By the way, we are all son of Adam (A.S.) and Eve.
2 comments:
Sallam,
This looks like a sociology topic.
I think during our grandfather's time, their interaction is more or less restricted within a certain geographic boundaries. In our time the geographic boundaries are widened due to the assistance from better infra and new technologies.
So, based on your diagram, I think the no. of nodes is much bigger then, say 50 years ago.
Although there is new technologies like ICT, facebook (I managed to locate my friend from 20 years ago). The media richness using ICT is lessen. I mean, it is 2 dimensional. It is not the same as face to face.
Recently, I've got some invitation via sms.
Previously, the invitor take the trouble to see us or at least make a call. We felt that it is inappropriate not attending the invitation. Now, it is just a click away. I felt that it just doesn't carry the same weight like before.
I just whatever topic come across my mind..
Yes, you are probably right, we boast to other people that we are linked or networked to certain influential or important figure... but we care less to say hi or salam to our close neighbour...
The one that will help you in real situation .. is the one that's physically closed to you... so ... start networking with your nearest physical friend, neighbour, colleague, preman.. or whoever
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