So far, yet so near

By Ranjan Yumnam *

This is a small world. I don't mean it in the spatial sense but in a social and emotional way.

It is a surprising fact that any person wherever she is, is only six steps away from anyone else in the world. We may not know that a person exists, but if by an imaginary rope we are tied to each other through friends and acquaintances, any person would lie so close, and if you pull that rope she may just fall at your feet.

If seen from this angle, the fruit juice maker in Haiti with the red shirt you see in the CNN news is only just six acquaintances away, and for that matter I am- metaphorically speaking-so close to Angelina Jolie.

Before I attempt to explain this, let me reproduce here the lyrics of a song by the inimitable Gwen Stefani of No Doubt fame-to warm up the topic and put it in perspective.

I knew someone who knew you,
And he introduced me to you,
Your ex-girlfriend had a boyfriend,
Who kissed my girlfriend,
Who dated Adrian.

The world keeps on getting smaller and smaller,
And everything comes back full circle, full circle,
Six degrees of separation,
We all know someone else,
It all comes full circle.

And you come from England,
My ex-boyfriend, he is Indian,
British passport, we are all connected.
And everyone else is affected.

This theory that any person is connected to us through just six intermediaries in between is called the "Six Degrees of Separation". This theory has been the basis of so many social networking websites like the Facebook, Orkut, Linked, etc. There is even a movie by the same name, and on the face of it, this theory seems to be true and nearly validated by empirical studies.

Also known as Human Web, six degrees of separation refers to the idea that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth.

Several studies have been commissioned to test out the tight human connectedness. The most famous was the one conducted by Stanley Milgram. As part of the experiment, he sent letters to people in some US cities chosen randomly. These volunteers were asked to make sure that those letters reach the unknown subjects living in some other cities by forwarding these letters to a person they know who they believe would be nearest to the intended recipients.

The chain was to continue from a person to person until it reaches the final destination. What resulted was that most of the letters reach the hands of the recipients though some refused to participate in the experiment. The mind-boggling result was this: the letters/packages changed hands, on average, of only 5.5 or six volunteers before the targeted subjects receive them. And thus came the name of this hypothesis: Six Degrees of Separation.

This was in 1967, and subsequently several other experiments were conducted by mathematicians, sociologists and communication researchers, each of which by and large concluded with the same result-which is that, though we are separated by thousands of miles, by different continents, cultures and bloodlines, we are in essence, at a certain level, the connected souls. We can't escape each other, however much we try. It's not for nothing that we say: "When New Delhi sneezes, Manipur catches a cold."

With the communication technologies galloping ahead at the speed we barely care to keep up with, the world has just got shrunk more, honey. Our smart phones and internet devices accompany us everywhere and our friends are just a click away, right there in the pocket.

Now, IT visionaries tell us this connectivity will expand in scope and richness beyond our mobile phones. Mobile phones will be so yesterday, and in the foreseeable future, our freeze, TVs, cars and even toilets will talk to us and keep us connected 24/7.

That's why, I am inclined to think that the six degrees of separation needs to be revised; its new nomenclature could be, say, three degrees of separation, who knows? (Note: Milgram's experiment did not mention anything about Ministers and bureaucrats in the South-East Asian countries; it is unclear whether Six Degrees of Separation applies to them as they are so inaccessible and aloof, at least in the public perception).

The greatest casualty of all this development will be the loss of privacy and assault on our precious personal time. Even as I write this, I am distracted so much by the urge to check my email, status updates of friends in the social networking sites, and sundry other favourite websites and blogs.

Second, internet is a double edged sword. It profiles your life with a degree of finality and you won't be able to do anything about the uncharitable tidbits of your life once it go up there. You won't be able to pull down the images of your drunken stupor, the unguarded moments, little indiscretions, and worse, digital technology has a way of multiplying itself-shame to amoeba.

You can change your present and future; you just need to forget the past. Internet keeps that past alive like an apparition and won't let go of it. Kill Google before you kill your past. Impossible, isn't it?

The idea is, be wary of internet and use it for enhancing productivity and maintaining a healthy online avatar. Second, since we are so much connected to each other, the best policy would be to be honest about our works and words. The days of pretensions are over.

If not that sneaky fellow, the lady assistant in your office, so to say, will know the truth about you and the truth can find its way to the LCD panel in your bathroom. Think Paris Hilton, think online permanence. Your lies will always be found out, no matter where you hide. Fertile digital messengers are all around us ready for reproduction and dissemination.

So the lesson here is to live with honesty, commitment to what we do for a living and integrity. Science has also found out that associating with happy people makes us happy.

We should use our six degrees judiciously and wisely so that they make us happier, livelier and our lives more meaningful and wholesome. You are what you eat, and likewise, you can be only happy as your closest buddy is.

Let's call this Six Degrees of Wellness.

*** E-mail may be quoted by name in Ranjan Yumnam's readers section, in a future article, or elsewhere unless the writer stipulates otherwise.

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Ranjan Yumnam

* Ranjan Yumnam, presently an MCS probationer, is a frequent contributor to e-pao.net. He can be contacted at ranjanyumnam(at)gmail(dot)com. This article was webcasted on October 27, 2009.

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