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It’s a small world… Or is it?

Last night I had this weird dream, where my son brought home a friend who just so happened to be the son of one of my old friends, someone I haven’t seen in over 20 years. That friend was a boy by the name of Jared Larocque and, if my memory serves me correct, me and Jared spent much of the mid-eighties hanging out, playing Nintendo, skipping school, breaking into other peoples’ homes and setting fire to playgrounds. Typical pastimes for Canadian boys between the ages of 5 and 7. He was my best (possibly my only) friend until 1987, when my family moved back to Ireland. I haven’t seen or spoken to Jared since.

So this morning, out of curiosity, I decided to look up this boy (now a man, obviously) on Facebook. It was interesting to see that a number of his friends are from other countries and it got me thinking about how many people ’seperate’ me and him on Facebook. In other words, how many friends of friends would I have to go through before I came back around to one of my own friends?

So I’ve decided to do a little experiment. I logged into Facebook and put in a friend request to Jared. I will do the same with his friends and then with their friends until I find out. I suspect that I’ll need to go through at least 50 people to come back around to one of my own (current) friends, if indeed, it is possible at all.

Small world, eh? Let’s find out…