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Only a Tiny Fraction of Your Facebook Friends Are Real

by Terrence O'Brien on January 25, 2010 at 05:15 PM

Only A Tiny Fraction of Your Facebook Friends are RealIf you're one of those people with about 3,000 Facebook friends, you probably think you're pretty cool. But we'd bet good money that you only actually interact with a tiny fraction of them. And Robin Dunbar, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, would probably put money down with us.

Dunbar conducted a study that shows most people can only maintain an active social circle of about 150 friends and family. Dunbar developed the theory in the '90s, and the figure of 150 is often discussed as "Dunbar's Number." It wasn't until recently, though, that he was able to complete a thorough study backing up his claims. His research involved not just observing modern cultures, but also digging through records of ancient and even prehistoric societies. He found that people tended to naturally group into circles of roughly 150 people, and that at larger sizes social cohesion often broke down.

He is now specifically looking at what he calls the "Facebook Effect," to see whether or not social networking sites have actually helped us to expand our circles of friends. Preliminary results suggest no. Dunbar told the Times, "You can have 1,500 friends but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world."

So, don't get jealous of that guy with thousands of friends. He's no more popular than you are; he's just got no shame. [From: Times Online]

Tags: facebook, friends, relationships, science, sociology

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