Saba Khan 31065 Six Degrees of Separation

Good morning everyone. Did you know that everyone in this class is just three introductions away from Donald Trump? You may be wondering how that is possible, well its fairly simple you all know me, maybe not well enough but you do know me as a fellow student in your English 208 class. Well I have a really close friend who has taken classes and advice from a professor in the School of Business and Management Dr Gary Eldred. Now Dr. Eldred has met and written books on real estate with Donald Trump and also teaches at Mr. Trumps online University. This means, that any one of you sitting here today, is just three introductions away from meeting Donald Trump. Well for those of you who still havent figured out my topic, today I am going to be speaking about the unique concept of the Six Degrees of Separation. The concept states that on an average any one human being is linked to another, anywhere on the planet, by a maximum of six connections. After researching the topic and reading numerous articles about the methods to prove the actual existence of this theory, I am convinced that I can meet any person on this planet by a maximum of six optimal introductions. So today, I would like to inform you all about how this theory came into existence, about the research and tests performed to prove this concept and lastly about how it impacts us all as individuals. I would firstly, like to start by telling you about how this concept was originally established. A Hungarian author and playwright Frigyes Karinthy was the initial founder for the idea and provided the base reasoning for what is now known as the six degrees of separation theory upon which many others have added their thoughts and conducted experiments to prove the actual existence of such an assumption. In his short story called Chains from the book Everything is Different he concentrated on the idea of a world that is shrinking, not in physical size but in terms of reduced communication barriers and increasing

travel opportunities causing more connections between different sorts of people. Despite the great distances between people the social distances between citizens were actually reducing due to the increased human networks. Secondly, I want to speak about the research and experiments carried out to prove this belief. The first actual experiment to prove the six degrees of separation concept was carried out by Stanley Milgram in the year 1967. This was called the small world experiment and involved Milgram choosing certain candidates in the United States to pass on a letter to a specific person, except they could not just mail it to that person directly but had to form connections for the letter to get to its final destination. On an average Milgrams small world experiment concluded that it took six connections for the letter to reach its target. However there was heavy criticism on this experiment as it was only based in the United States and consisted of very few people and so in 2001 this experiment was conducted again by professor Duncan Watts of Columbia University through emails this time. It followed the same concept as Milgrams experiment but included 60,000 people from 170 countries. The links that were actually completed too had the average connections as six. And finally I would like to focus on how this idea impacts us all as individuals. This concept is not all about research and facts but also affects us individuals as it reflects on the closeness of the human race and the idea of a shrinking world. This concept focuses on the social advancement of our entire race and makes us realize that we are only a few introductions away from the whole world. It is also a cause for breaking down stereotypical and interracial barriers so that we can finally have a world without hate and prejudice as we feel closer and more connected with other people. In conclusion I would like to reaffirm my belief in this theory and in the idea that the human race is all connected in one way or another. I am filled with amazement at the actual closeness of our species and this makes me feel like an integral and connected part of our

world. Popular culture too has been greatly influenced by this theory with numerous TV shows such as Connected: the power of six degrees, Lost, Lonely Planet Six degrees and many more depicting connections between random individuals. Movies have been made about this astounding phenomenon as well such as the 1993 film titled the six degrees of separation focusing completely on this idea. Even popular social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn have been caught up in this idea by trying to prove this theory by conducting experiments among their members. This concept developed after the First World War by Karinthy surely has impacted our lives and has only been confirmed by experiments such as Milgramss and Columbia Universitys Small World Experiment. I would like you all to think about the implications of such a theory being an actual fact. Each and everyone one of you will be amazed at how close you are to meeting your favorite personalities, people you admire and the possibilities such a theory could open up in your everyday life, professionally or otherwise. It impacts us all, as we are all part of this theory and the potential benefits of such a mindset can be exponential. As Walt Disney very aptly put it Its a small world after all.