four because of social networking and mobile phones Biz Stone – Introducing Jelly

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In a post titled ‘Anatomy of Facebook’, Lars Backstorm, a scientist at Facebook, reported that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world was not six but 4.74.

An excerpt from the post:

“When considering even the most distant Facebook user in the Siberian tundra or the Peruvian rain forest … a friend of your friend probably knows a friend of their friend.”

The caveat there is “Facebook user” — like the Milgram study, the cohort was a self-selected group, in this case people with online access who use a particular Web site.

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“six degrees of separation” Biz Stone – Introducing Jelly

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The phrase “six degrees of separation” refers to the idea that everyone is only six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.

This idea was originally set out by Hungarian Author Frigyes Karinthy, who explored the concept in a 1929 short story titled “Chains,” or “Chain-Links.”, and was popularized by John Guare in his play Six Degrees of Separation.

In the story, Karinthy’s characters create a game out of this notion:

One of us suggested performing the following experiment to prove that the population of the Earth is closer together now than they have ever been before. We should select any person from the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth – anyone, anywhere at all. He bet us that, using no more than five individuals, one of whom is a personal acquaintance, he could contact the selected individual using nothing except the network of personal acquaintances.

Psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a study to research this theory in the 1970s:

296 volunteers … were asked to send a message by postcard, through friends and then friends of friends, to a specific person in a Boston suburb.

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The phrase "*six degrees of separation*" refers to the idea that everyone is only six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.

This idea was originally set out by [Hungarian Author Frigyes Karinthy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigyes_Karinthy), who explored the concept in a 1929 short story titled ["Chains," or "Chain-Links."](https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdjjr-courses.wdfiles.com%2Flocal--files%2Fsoc180%3Akarinthy-chain-links%2FKarinthy-Chain-Links_1929.pdf), and was popularized by John Guare in his play *Six Degrees of Separation*.

**In the story, Karinthy's characters create a game out of this notion:**

> One of us suggested performing the following experiment to prove that the population of the Earth is closer together now than they have ever been before. We should select any person from the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth – anyone, anywhere at all. He bet us that, using no more than five individuals, one of whom is a personal acquaintance, he could contact the selected individual using nothing except the network of personal acquaintances.

Psychologist Stanley Milgram [conducted a study to research this theory in the 1970s:](http://measure.igpp.ucla.edu/GK12-SEE-LA/Lesson_Files_09/Tina_Wey/TW_social_networks_Milgram_1967_small_world_problem.pdf)

> 296 volunteers ... were asked to send a message by postcard, through friends and then friends of friends, to a specific person in a Boston suburb.

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140 characters is considered a maximum length Biz Stone – Introducing Jelly

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#Twitter

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Jelly, is also the co-founder of Twitter, the social networking and microblogging service which limits user messages – “tweets” – to 140-characters.

Twitter set a 140-character limit to enable compatibility with SMS (text) messages, which have a 160-character limit.

SMS messages were limited to 160-characters when communications researcher Friedhelm Hillebrand, among a dozen others, was:

laying out the plans to standardize a technology that would allow cellphones to transmit and display text messages. Because of tight bandwidth constraints of the wireless networks at the time – which were mostly used for car phones – each message would have to be as short as possible.

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Questions with images deepen their context. Biz Stone – Introducing Jelly

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A picture of Jelly’s User Interface from the original Blog Post

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There is strength in weak ties. Biz Stone – Introducing Jelly

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Mark S. Granovetter coined and explored this phenomenon in a highly influential paper titled ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, which has been cited over 26,000 times.

In the paper Granovetter writes:

It is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another. The impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored. Stress is laid on the cohesive power of weak ties. Most network models deal, implicitly, with strong ties, thus confining their applicability to small, well-defined groups. Emphasis on weak ties lends itself to discussion of relations between groups and to analysis of segments of social structure not easily defined in terms of primary groups.

A picture of Jelly’s User Interface from the original Blog Post

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[Mark S. Granovetter](http://www.stanford.edu/dept/soc/people/mgranovetter/) coined and explored this phenomenon in a highly influential paper titled **'The Strength of Weak Ties'**, which has been [cited over 26,000 times.](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1212931848998904480&as_sdt=5,33&sciodt=0,33&hl=en)

[In the paper Granovetter writes:](https://www.stanford.edu/dept/soc/people/mgranovetter/documents/granstrengthweakties.pdf)

> It is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another. The impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored. Stress is laid on the cohesive power of weak ties. Most network models deal, implicitly, with strong ties, thus confining their applicability to small, well-defined groups. Emphasis on weak ties lends itself to discussion of relations *between* groups and to analysis of segments of social structure not easily defined in terms of primary groups.

http://images.rapgenius.com/91f76a4f05f4ea2d2bc7f132a552513e.572x322x1.jpg
*A picture of Jelly's User Interface from the original Blog Post*

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