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Zero Degrees of Separation

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Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is based on the concept of the small world phenomenon and that you can tie any actor to Kevin Bacon within six degrees. With the world moving at the pace that it is, we can narrow that down to almost zero for our relationships.

Facebook, Twitter and any other online social networking site ties gives us the ability to find that high school friend, the guy you met at your friend's potluck, to connecting with people you have nothing in common with.

We are tied together by this thin web that is so fragile that it can break at any moment, held together by a digital cloud of words and images, this web can be made stronger by physical contact, but in most cases that is rare. Our online relationships hang by a thread, and is that what we want for our future interactions? Is that what we will be calling normal? We can delete, block, excise with the stroke of a key, no blood is spilled, the only result is more open space in your hard drive.

Zero degrees of separation, you connect to me to through someone else, the common factor could be a past relationship or just because you find me interesting. My interaction with you is tenuous at best, easily bumped off on a whim or lack of interest. No one is hurt, we just move onto something else. I want to reach out and touch the person I am messaging, I want to see them laugh at my jokes, and hear the tone of the words I use. I want to bring it to zero degrees of separation.

Image: Ophelia Chong / From the Past

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