The Concept of Social Gravity
Christopher Hogg
Happy Teachers Change the World. Research Fellow Royal Holloway at Royal Holloway, University of London
Six inches of Separation.
We have moved from the age of six degrees of separation to the age of six inches of separation. The distance between our Facebook trending feed and your Facebook private message feed has contracted. The collapse in public and private is also collapse of internet real estate. Also psychic real estate. We used to roam far and wide, and now it we stay in our internet bedroom. Why leave when we can conjure the whole world to a screen in front of us.
The same friend that shares Syrian gas attacks in one fragment shows children's birthday parties in the next. The collapse of news and friendship. It is truly horrible. Like teenagers, who lack empathy because their brains are pruning connections made in childhood, so we prune our friends, the friends that we were so happy to make in the naughties. Now they must go because these days a problem shared is a problem multiplied. This is Social Gravity. Social Media is barely a teenager in age. Maybe we will may grow up with our media. Maybe not. Either way, the collapse in public and private creates mini black holes of narcissism online.