I am not a statistician but I am guessing that I observed a fairly unusual statistical event today. While browsing my feed on Facebook to see what my friends have been up to I came across a couple of similar posts. Two of my friends from different “networks” in different states both posted that their kids were having a 10 year old birthday today the exact same minute, check it out (and I’ll get to the importance part near the end of this article):

Statistical Coincidence

So statisticians out there, am I exaggerating the significance of this or are these Lottery type odds? Here are some of the unique and similar aspects of the event:

1. These two friends are from completely different groups of people.
2. They are in different states.
3. Both of them have children turning 10 today.
4. They posted the news within the same minute.
5. I had 1,429 Facebook Friends at the time of the posting.

I’ve come to view the world as much smaller and the connections between people a lot closer. I really enjoy finding in particular that people from completely unrelated groups know each other. It also is really rewarding when I see unrelated friends become friends without an introduction, just by being mutual friends of mine. I know that lots of people bang the drums about social media being good and bad. If I make as few as one good friendship from it the rewards for that are long lasting and well worth the investment. Needless to say it has definitely been a good investment for me, in many ways. It is events like this that make me think about that, noticing something unique and uncommon. Speaking of unique and common, I have also learned things about friends via Social Media that I am not sure I ever would have IRL (In Real Life). It has definitely brought me closer to people who I was acquainted with.