Wonderful Network Connectedness Piece

Very cool NYT graphics summarizing U.S. Facebook network connectedness.  Check it out:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/19/upshot/facebook-county-friendships.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

They get the same result that Kamil Yilmaz and I have gotten for years in our analyses of economic and financial network connectedness:  There is a strong "gravity effect" -- that is, even in the electronic age, physical proximity is the key ingredient to network relationships. See for example:

 https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~fdiebold/papers2/DDLYpaper.pdf

Maybe not as surprising for facebook friends as for financial institutions (say).  But still...