It's A Small World After All

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Texting and instant messaging have been getting bad raps of late, what with their English-language-destroying emoticons (gasp). But unlike texting, which (while both fun and utilitarian) tends to make motorists way more crashy, IM looks to be adding social value. Recently, it was instrumental in validating the popular "six degrees of separation" theory. Using some 30 billion instant messages sent by 240 million people, researchers at Microsoft were able to link any two people by an average of 6.6 steps. But could IM have prevented Paul from deceiving and seducing Rick, taking his money, and causing him to kill himself? Probably.

Thanks, Casey.