In 1967, Psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a study that, he said, proved that any two people on the planet were separated by 6 acquaintances. He did this by having 296 volunteers mail a postcard to friends, and their friends and so on, to a specific person living in a Boston suburb. With this study, “6 degrees of separation” became a phenomenon in pop psychology and culture. However, more recently, Facebook and the University of Milan partnered to conduct a study with a slightly higher sample population: 751 million Facebook users. On Monday, they announced that the real factor of separation between any two people is closer to 4.74 (in the U.S., it’s 4.37).

The University used a set of algorithms to track sample “paths” through networks of Facebooks users friends, finding that the average distance between any two arbitrarily selected users was about 4.74 individuals. The limitations of the study included Facebook users, which means that areas where Facebook is not available, for instance in many Middle Eastern and Asian nations, may effect the outcome somewhat. However, the fact that the study cohort was equivalent to roughly 1/10 of the world’s population means that the findings are not too far off. In the official release of the study’s findings, published on Facebook Monday night, “When considering even the most distant Facebook user in the Siberian tundra or the Peruvian rain forest, a friend of your friend probably knows a friend of their friend.” That’s a pretty astonishing conclusion for the truly globalized network of people existing via the internet.

The study’s findings inevitably brought up questions of what it really means to be a “friend” on Facebook, and the evolution of the conceptualization of “friends” since Facebook began taking off. For instance, a Microsoft study, using similar parameters but a more conservative version of the definition “friend”, found that 6.6 degrees, on average, exist between people. The weak ties we maintain through social networking nonetheless create an complex network of bridges over which information crosses quickly. From organizing massive popular movements to data-mining by corporate advertising firms, the information available through this massive tapestry of superficial connections is greatly expanding the availability of information.

For good or bad, the interconnectedness of the millions of people using social networking sites creates a constant and quickening flow of disseminating information. This potentially creates issues for consumer advocacy groups trying to protect personal information from abuse. Hackers can potentially impact millions of people through this type of network, and government security experts uncover potential terrorist groups by exploring their “friends’” connections. It’s very possible that before the internet, the “six degrees of separation” held true. However, post-world-wide-web, we’re living in a dramatically contracting world, where relationships are becoming vastly more dense and surface, ideal conditions for the transmission of massive loads of data.