Do the Young Live in a "Smaller World" Than the Old? Age-Specific Degrees of Separation in Human Communication

Understand

In this paper, we investigate the phenomenon of "age-specific small worlds" using data from a large-scale mobile communication network approximating interaction patterns at societal scale.

• Rather than asking whether two random individuals are separated by a small number of links, we ask whether individuals in specific age groups live in a small world in relation to individuals from other age groups.
• Our analysis shows that there is systematic variation in this age-relative small world effect.
• Young people live in the "smallest world," being separated from other young people and their parent's generation via a smaller number of intermediaries than older individuals.