The Six, er, Three Degrees of Separation

Composed in Sarasota, Florida--

The term "social networking" is used to describe the online phenomena of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube.  But the phrase was coined in the 1950s by someone named J. A. Barnes. 

In the 1960s, a psychologist named Stanley Milgram did some research and discovered that any two typical Americans who didn't know each other could connect through no more than six other people.  This theory led to the now famous catch phrase, "the six degrees of separation."

Thanks to the Internet, it's probably more realistic to think of social networking as only three degrees of separation.
Here's another number to throw into the mix.  Former uber car salesman Joe Girard once postulated that the average person let's 250 people know about big events such as a divorce, a baby or a move.  He named this the "Law of 250."

Now let's marry the six degrees of separation and the Law of 250.  Why not use e-mail or a social networking site to sell your house?  I've listed my home with a realtor and may end up selling it to my next door neighbor!