It's happened. I knew it would eventually, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. Friends and acquaintances of mine know each other, at least enough to be "friends" on social media sites. The world is officially small.
Do you remember the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game people would play. You had to get from one person to Kevin Bacon in six degrees of separation. The challenge was to pick a person too removed from Kevin Bacon that your friend couldn't possibly make the connection. There were of course, several people from high school that I remember could always make it to Mr. Bacon. I feel like now the game is a mute point. It would be better to use someone you know, like yourself, to replace Kevin Bacon. So, six degrees of separation to Alexis Donkin, let's start with the King of Sweden... oh wait, that won't work because of the Nobel prize... You see. I'm trying to rack my brain for someone who can't be done in six degrees for myself, and I'm no where near the high profile of Kevin Bacon. And I'm not even thinking of social media sites... I was just thinking of schools.
It was the logical result of social media, especially if you have a limited type or realm of social circles. Let's say for example you're into drama. Drama is a small world anyway, especially if you are anyone. Everyone seems to know everyone else. Music is the same. Social media sites just make it even easier for those realms to interact, and suddenly the Appalachians, Mississippi, Great Plains, Rockies, and South Pacific no longer matter. Everyone is equal on the internet. Everyone is as accessible as they want to be. So people from college are friends with my friends from high school, and maybe from my singing days. WHAT?!
For some reason I thought of these worlds as separate, but now they are joined. It isn't just the social media sites. It's also just the way the world seems to work, or perhaps it's just the world closer to 30 and after. It feels like places that have held importance in my life, of which there are many, have become pools for people from other eras during lives when I was someone else. The best example is the Bay Area. Literally there are people from all my schools here (and I have been in school for most of my life). I think my cousin is going to move here shortly. Musicians with whom we shared stages are here. It just seems odd.
Maybe I fell into a social black hole which has a magnetic pull that attracts certain kinds of people to its core. Suddenly I'm overwhelmed by the convergence of forces and find myself wondering about this alternative universe in which I now reside. My world is smaller and stranger than I knew. The future is so marvelous and strange. I guess I should explore it more.
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