It’s 4 or 5, not 6, degrees of separation, and it’s getting smaller


The Facebook Data Team analyzed the social connections between users.

We found that six degrees actually overstates the number of links between typical pairs of users: While 99.6% of all pairs of users are connected by paths with 5 degrees (6 hops), 92% are connected by only four degrees (5 hops)

Even more interesting? That distance is decreasing:

The average distance in 2008 was 5.28 hops (4.28 degrees), while now it is 4.74 (3.74 degrees?)

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