With Watts' help, "Primetime" set up the test so that the participants would not just be strangers, but would literally come from different worlds. The "Primetime" experiment went beyond the previous limits. First, it may be true the majority of most people who participate in the Small World Project are of the same social class, and some say it's easy to connect the searcher with the target if both are college educated or middle class. Of the hundreds of chains that have been completed, Watts says the average number of links has been six, supporting the six degrees of separation theory.īut Watts admits there are built-in biases to his work. Some 60,000 people from 170 countries have taken part in the experiment. The hope is to eventually send an e-mail to someone who knows the target personally, completing the chain. They ask that person to continue the links by e-mailing someone else they know. But there's a catch - they can't just send an e-mail directly to the target, they must connect by creating a human chain.įirst, the participant e-mails someone they know.
Their job is to link to this person via e-mail. In the experiment, each participant, or "searcher," is assigned a random "target," one of 18 people around the world. The Small World Project is carried out online. Watts himself has led one of the most significant experiments, Columbia's Small World Project. Everyone is connected in some way or another."Īs widespread as the notion of six degrees has become since it was hatched in the 1960s and has since become the subject of a play and movie, there has been very little effort to try to prove whether the hypothesis is true. "You may think that you're sort of locked away in your little part of the world," Watts said. Network Theory covers many subjects, including how people interact socially, how diseases spread, how people find jobs, and even how aspects of the World Wide Web operate. It's a Small World After Allįor a number of years, Watts has studied Network Theory, the scientific field that examines how networks form and how they work in society. With the help of Columbia University professor Duncan Watts, "Primetime" created a test that pitted real people against each other in a race to see who could connect themselves to a random third individual the fastest, and do it in an unusual way. "Primetime" resolved to find out by conducting a groundbreaking social experiment. Writers like you and me.See how "Primetime's" experiment played out on "Basic Instincts: The Human Chain" Wednesday, Dec. Additionally, many companies use LinkedIn to search for talent.Īnd that talent includes freelance or independent writers. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites are often banned on company computers.īut, one of the best reasons to use LinkedIn is that its format allows you to promote yourself in the right way, and to the right people. Like the Simon and Garfunkel song bemoans, it’s the “sound of silence.”īecause it is a business network, many businesses allow access during work hours. While you do get little red flags for messages or other notifications, there’s no cheery little ding. There are no games, contests, or playful distractions. The question isn’t, “why not connect?” The real question is, “why should I?” They are well thought out and deliberate. Several of them, actually.įirst, and probably foremost, LinkedIn is a network designed specifically for business people. But you really have to work to make a connection on LinkedIn. In fact, you may end up being connected to someone without even knowing why or how.
It seems like a new one pops up every week.Īnd on many of them, it’s very easy to make a connection with another user. Why use LinkedIn?Īfter all, there are many social networks out there. The conclusion? The distance between any two people on the planet is, on average, 6.6 degrees of separation.Īfter using my LinkedIn profile for about three years now, I’m inclined to believe it. Microsoft even conducted an experiment in 2008 using 30 billion emails and other electronic messages. Since then, there has been much debate as to its validity. In his story Chains, Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy used the term “chain of acquaintances” to explain the idea.
There’s a theory every person in this world is connected to every other person by a chain of no more than six contacts.