Facebook celebrates its 12th birthday as Friends Day with videos, stickers, stats

The lowest degree of separation averaged at 2.9 and the highest averaged at 4.2.

“We figured that rather than having this birthday that focuses on us, we should make sure that the world focuses on what’s important that’s actually happening, which are stories of how people are connecting around the world, and it’s just incredible and it’s inspiring to hear”, said Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. You can check out your own degree of separation to other Facebook users when you log in.

Of course, in the real world, relationships aren’t as close, but on Facebook, you are most likely friends with someone, or a friend of a friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend. The task was “monumental”, according to the company, as “the number of people reached grows very quickly with the degree of separation”.

There are also two new friendship-themed sticker packages available, which can be sent to other users via Facebook’s Messenger app.

Facebook’s “degrees of separation” have shrunk as more people have signed on over the years.

The post starts with a description of six degrees of separation: The notion that it takes just six social connections to link you with every human on Earth. Facebook already has 1.59 billion monthly active users, a figure that’s doubled since 2011, so it could conceivably accomplish the target in the next 14 years.

The social network is commemorating the event with a custom video for millions of users chronicling users rich history of spending a lot of time on Facebook. It also shows you how connected CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg are (3.17 and 2.92, respectively).

The company used automated technology to collate photos of users and their friends, packing them together in a video collage, which can be shared publicly or viewed privately. When people connect, powerful things happen and lives are changed. As Facebook users get closer, they might be becoming ever more isolated.

This is not the first time Facebook has tried to tug at its users’ heartstrings, with embarrassing and borderline dismal results.