Four Degrees of Separation

As my family arrived on the island for the holiday, we started to realize that they also knew several other folks visiting...sort of the six degrees of separation thing.

Six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy and popularized by a playwritten by John Guare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

But my son informed me that now it's more like four degrees:   

Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees

By JOHN MARKOFF and SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: November 21, 2011

• 
  The world is even smaller than you thought.

Adding a new chapter to the research that cemented the phrase “six degrees of separation” into the language, scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan reported on Monday that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world was not six but 4.74.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/technology/between-you-and-me-4-74-degrees.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=4.74&st=cse

All in all, it just made for an interesting celebration in the village, with my son recognizing friends and co-workers from Seattle and California, as we enjoyed the holiday festivities on our little island in the Salish Sea.