On Facebook, it's now 4.74 degrees of separation

A theory that has always fascinated me has been the "6 degrees of separation." The theory says that you are just six people away from anyone else on Earth. How cool is it to think that you know someone who knows someone who knows Adrian Peterson? New research by Facebook shows that this number is now roughly 4.74, not 6. The average Facebook user is now only 4.74 degrees away from any other Facebooker. This study was done on over 721 million Facebook users.

Honestly, it blows my mind to think that you are only 5 people away from ANYONE in the world that is on Facebook. The interesting part is that the world's population keeps growing, but in just three short years the number of degrees of separation has dropped to under 5 people. Do we know more people now? I think a big part of it is social networking. Also, social networking makes it easier to get factual data on how everyone is connected.

What do you guys think? Are you as fascinated as I am about the degrees of separation?

New way to pay your friends

PayPal has launched a new Facebook app...one that allows you to send money to your friends through the social networking site. The app, simply named Send Money, gives you the option of sending a card with the money or just the money alone. There is no transaction fee for this service.

I can see the uses for this... sending money to friends and relatives for their birthday or Christmas. But it really has me wondering how secure it is. I'm sure Facebook and PayPal both have taken extensive measures to ensure it's security...but I'm still not sold on it. What do you guys think? Would you send money over Facebook, or does it scare you as much as it scares me?

Online Stalking

We've all done it...  we've all used Google or Facebook to seek out information about your ex, that new person on campus, even celebrities. It's innocent, nosey, and...stalking? Recently while doing a theater practicum, I met someone interesting...just interesting enough to make me want to Google him. While I'm embarrassed to admit this, I think it proves a good point. We became good friends, and after he left to go back to his home state to film for a movie (exciting, right?!) I Googled him. Yes, I am that person. I was blown away by the information I found. It was absolutely creepy. Right away I sent this guy a text saying, "you will never believe what I found on Google about you!" His yearly salary, past and current addresses, theater roles... it was all there.

My point is, while Googling this guy was completely harmless on my part, where do you draw the line when it comes to "researching" someone? I think it's when you know more information about someone than you would willingly admit. Sure, it's fine to say you noticed they were a Vikings fan from their profile picture. But when you know EVERYTHING about them... it's stalking. It doesn't stop with Google... you can use Facebook, Myspace, even dating profiles.

Urban Dictionary describes Facebook Stalking as, "a covert method of investigation using facebook.com. Good for discovering a wealth of information about people you don't actually know"

What do you guys think?