Map visualises how Facebook friends connect around the world
An intern at Facebook has created a social media map displaying connections between Facebook friends across the globe.
Paul Butler used data from the 500 million subscribers to Facebook, to work out the “locality of friendship”.
“I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends,” he wrote on the site. “I wanted a visualisation that would show which cities had a lot of friendships between them.”
The map shows links as lights on a deep blue background. The eastern half of the United States and Europe shine the brightest, while China, Russia and central Africa, where Facebook has little presence, are mainly dark.
Butler said that people who have seen the map have told him it “resonates with them”.
The lines don’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships, Paul Butler, Facebook intern
“What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships,” he added.
“Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life.”
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