The phrase “What a small world!” rings true and is commonly used. You’ll hear it in unexpected places when you discover you have mutual friends with a new friend you’ve just made, or maybe this even happens with an old friend you’ve had for a while. Sometimes you’ll hear it when it totally catches you by surprise, and then other times it totally doesn’t.
But what about the times that you would’ve expected Person A to know Person B, but soon discover that they had not previously met so you then proceed to enthusiastically and properly introduce them to each other?
When you think about it, does this not happen just as much as discovering you have mutual friends with someone else? So then, is the world really that small?
There are more than 7 billion people on this planet right now, the world is by no means small at all. As David Weinberger put it, “Everyone is famous to 15 people.” I speculate that the reason why this world seems so small, is that it’s very easy to get to know the community around you if it is founded upon a common trend, especially if it’s a common interest or passion.
According to Jill Walker Rettberg in her book: Blogging, blogs are definitely dense with small audiences, and the “weak ties” that are formed because of the small range should be no surprise. Stanley Milgram suspects that people are all connected to each other. He claims that in six associations alone, one person would be able to connect to anyone in the country, and possibly world. This could be true as long as the people involved are involved and rooted in many diverse communities.
In life outside of the virtual world, people will form communities through family ties, mutual friends, common jobs, neighborhood similarities, etc. Online, it becomes easier to relate because in addition to finding community in all those things, the virtual world provides access to be in community with those who share common ideas, passions, and inspirations. We have the opportunity to build up and encourage our communities, let’s use it for good!
With this in mind, we also have to face the reality that this little bubble we live in is actually visible to more people than we would first assume. Nothing good comes from tearing down a person in our community with vicious words. This is all the more reason to have reign over our tongue, or finger tips, and use our influence to change the lives around us for good.
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