Facebook research shows that people have an average of 150 friends, supporting the existence of “Dunbar’s Number” which I wrote about in a previous post on why socializing doesn’t scale. The same research also supports the existence of a support clique of 3 to 5 people, as Facebook users have on average 5 close friends they spend most of their time interacting with.
The TEDxObserver presentation below shows Robin Dunbar discussing this research.
[...] traveling faster from individual to individual. However, this effect is so massive, that many are fooled into describing rapids spreads as “viral”. However, viral spreads implies social [...]
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If the numbers game sounds tawdry to you, you’d fit in with the U.K. researchers, who are looking at the effects of such friend-hoarding. “The cheapness of communication is a double-edged sword,” Dr. Reader says. Whereas you might enrich your life with more contacts, the things that are “important for intimate friendships,” such as presents, meals and a ride in your car, he says, don’t exist.
Comment by Craig E. Phillips — February 17, 2013 @ 1:46 am