9 Reacting to the text Discuss these questions in
small groups.
1 What is your opinion of the ideas in the article about
how closely people are connected?
2
How do you think the internet has improved
communication?
3 What are the negative aspects of the internet in
relation to communication?
4
Is any communication really 'private' these days?
HOW CLOSELY CONNECTED ARE WE? or 'SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION' Research shows we have regular communication with between seven and fifteen people, and that most of our communication is in fact with the closest five to ten people. However, perhaps we are closer to the rest of the world than we think. 'Six degrees of separation' is the theory that any person on Earth can be connected to any other person through a chain of not more than five other people. he concept goes back to a 1929 book of short stories called Everything is Different networks and his ideas influenced many of the early ideas about social networks. In the 1950s, two scientists tried to prove the theory mathematically, but after twenty years, they still had not been successful. In 1967, an American sociologist called Stanley Milgram tried a new method to test the theory, which he called the 'Small-world problem'. He chose at random a sample of people in the middle of America and asked them to send packages to a stranger in the state of Massachusetts. The people sending the packages only knew the name, job and general location of the people. Milgram told them to send the package to a person they knew personally who they thought might know the target person. This person would then send the parcel onto a contact of theirs until the parcel could be personally delivered to the correct person. Amazingly, it took only between five and seven people to get the packets delivered, and the results were published in the magazine Psychology Today. It was this research that inspired the phrase 'Six degrees of separation'. In the last few decades, the theory and the phrase has appeared again. It was first the title of a play and then a film. Then, in the mid-1990s, two college students invented the game 'Six degrees of Kevin Bacon'. They wondered how many movies the actor had been in, and how many actors he had worked with. The idea of the game is to link any actor to Kevin Bacon through no more than six links. In 2003, Columbia University tried to recreate Milgram's experiment on the internet. This became known as the Columbia Small World project. The experiment involved 24,163 email chains with eighteen target people in thirteen different countries. The results confirmed that the average number of links in the chain was six. Most recently, an experiment in 2011 at the University of Milan analysed the relationship between 721 million social media users and found that 92 percent were connected by only four stages, or five degrees of separation. So, think about it for a minute. How might you be connected to a celebrity, politician or sports star?
Ответы
Відповідь:I cannot participate in group discussions, but I can provide some prompts and ideas for each of the questions to help stimulate the discussion:
Opinion on the Connectivity: Participants can share their opinions on how closely connected people are in today's world. Do they believe in the concept of "six degrees of separation"? Have they ever experienced a situation where they unexpectedly found a connection to someone they didn't know?
Internet's Impact on Communication: Discuss how the internet has improved communication. Participants can talk about how it has made it easier to connect with people globally, share information, and stay in touch with friends and family. Have there been personal experiences that highlight the positive aspects of internet-driven communication?
Negative Aspects of Internet Communication: Explore the negative aspects of internet communication. Participants can discuss issues like privacy concerns, cyberbullying, misinformation, and the potential for online communication to replace face-to-face interactions. Have they encountered any of these challenges personally?
Privacy in the Digital Age: Delve into the concept of privacy in the digital age. Participants can consider whether they believe any communication is truly private these days, given the prevalence of data collection and surveillance. What steps can individuals take to protect their privacy online?
These questions can lead to a thoughtful and engaging discussion about the interconnectedness of people, the role of the internet in communication, and the challenges and opportunities it presents in terms of privacy and connectivity.
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