Makin’ Bacon at three degrees

By now, everyone knows about “six degrees of separation” and the related Kevin Bacon game. To sum up: we’re all just separated by six degrees — or six people — and if we take time to chart it, we can all connect ourselves back to Kevin B.

But wait, things have heated up.

Turns out, at least according to one study, we’re actually now only three degrees separated. In a blog post, Six Degrees of Separation is Now Three, Matt Rhodes points to a study by o2 that suggests “We are more connected than ever before… (and) …it is easier than ever before to build and keep a network of connections.”

No doubt this is thanks to all the online social networking happening — all those requests to join folks’ groups and friends list, etc at LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook and on and on. Interesting to contemplate if we really are more connected — how well do you really know your online contacts? Or if, as some posit, all this over-the-wire interaction really just isolates us more, as in we’re so busy at home alone on our computers making “friends” that we limit our real life relationships.

Rhodes thinks we are getting closer. He says:

So social networking and increased connectivity is making us closer, but more importantly, it is making us focus more around issues and experiences rather than locations… Our friends and connections no longer have to be based on mere geography, but can be based on experiences and interests, shared goals and passions.

Well, okay, maybe he has a point. But coworking is going to be — already is, but will become even more so — the trend that provides a space for online and real life connectivity overlap. Getting work done no longer has to be about being in the same location as one’s colleagues, true. And still, the desire — need, even — for real time interaction with others who share our passion (if not our job description) is not going to go away.