Don't you love to see social networking research get play in the major journals?

2006, I have decided, is the year that I'll make it big. I'll get a promotion. I'll be wildly popular. And in order to do this I'll meet lots of people and make them my friends.

So imagine my delight when I find a study about [social] networking in my inbox at the start of the week.

Duncan Watts finds that you are 30 times more likely to meet a friend of a friend than a friend of a friend of a friend. Apparently this is extraordinarily interesting. Don't get it? What's important is that we know it's 30, not 29 or 31. Woo hoo!

My resolution to schmooze is probably pointless: for all I know, my new friends are about to sever the very ties and influence I covet in them.

To be honest, this comes as a relief. I'm more comfortable being the cynical loner.