Bob Thurman, Buddhist monk and scholar, on the Buddhist view of the universe. In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Thurman, is our first step toward becoming Buddha. When we can know everything, we can see how everything is interconnected -- and we can begin to feel compassion for every living being.

I find that I'm having a real problem trying to figure out if the web (esp web 2.0) is allowing more connections or pushing users into niches.

I'll get back to this with more coherent thoughts, because I have to mull over it more, but that is the tension I see

One of the things that has been popping into and out of my mind more and more often is what I think about as "the question of the 150"

Throughout much of our history the largest really well connected and tied together communities have been this number or less.... even huge military organizations tend to have actual operational units no more than this. Some people maintain that this is the largest number of people we can maintain real links to - that there is a hard cap on the number of people that we can be close to, and that this number is built into our very fabric.

If this is so, then would it be any different on the web? Or would the web exacerbate problems... as we become closer to on-line contacts does this limit the number of close 'real' world contacts?  Or from another perspective, if 150 is a magic number and if we are more likely to form the links with people of similar interests will we be pushed in niches (as per your point, dekrazee1).

Is it possible that in the 'old' days, when we could only find a few people with really similar interests to our own,  we built up our list of 'friends and closer acquaintances' from those physically near us (in the main)  to a reasonable number (below the 150) thereby forming an eclectic mix?  If this is the case, then with the 'whole' world to choose from we may indeeed fall in step with those with a much less eclectic mix of personalities, interests, skills, hopes and aspirations -- our cap of 150 might be made up of a recognizable niche or clique.

I hope this is not the case (my ideas revolving around the concepts of a "Third Place of Learning" and "Global Brain" would certainly fall flat if these concerns are valid).