January 26, 2016 at 12:06The “prove the obvious” heading: your Facebook friends don't give a damn about you
Even if you have thousands of Facebook friends, you can only count on the help of a few of them, as described in a new study by anthropologist Robin Dunbar. This scientist introduced the concept of “Dunbar Number”: in real life, people can maintain up to 150 stable social ties.
Photo: The New Yorker
British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed the hypothesis of a social brain. According to this theory, human intelligence developed primarily as a means to create and maintain a large social group. After the formation of the group, its members give preference to the most intelligent individuals, which also spurs the development of intelligence. This theory was proposed by Dunbar after a study on primates, within the framework of which it was possible to determine the number of individuals in the group by the size of the brain, which by the size of the brain can determine the number of individuals in the group. In relation to people, Dunbar deduced the "rule of three". We will invite from 100 to 200 friends to a big party - an average of 150. Then we will invite only 15 people to dinner. And only 5 people will be the closest friends, and often these are relatives. At the same time, we can name one and a half thousand people, recognizing them by sight.
In the new study, Dunbar reviewed the 3375 Facebook users between the ages of 18 to 65. On average, users had 150 subscribers, of which a person could expect to 4.1 during the "emotional crisis" and compassion ever expressed 13.6diggers people .
These numbers converge with Dunbar's study of friendship in the real world. The dimensions of the two inner circles of friendship are no different from offline examples, the author says. And if a user has much more than 150 friends on a social network, nothing will change. Active users of social media do not have more friends in real life than those people who use social networks less often.
The study also showed that the younger the user, the more friends he has on the network. And older people have more friends in real life.
The results of the study confirm the obvious: each of us has a limited amount of time and emotional forces for social interactions, both online and in real life. In any case, social networks give us one advantage - we can contact a large base of people at any time and maintain relationships with them.
Photo: The New Yorker
British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed the hypothesis of a social brain. According to this theory, human intelligence developed primarily as a means to create and maintain a large social group. After the formation of the group, its members give preference to the most intelligent individuals, which also spurs the development of intelligence. This theory was proposed by Dunbar after a study on primates, within the framework of which it was possible to determine the number of individuals in the group by the size of the brain, which by the size of the brain can determine the number of individuals in the group. In relation to people, Dunbar deduced the "rule of three". We will invite from 100 to 200 friends to a big party - an average of 150. Then we will invite only 15 people to dinner. And only 5 people will be the closest friends, and often these are relatives. At the same time, we can name one and a half thousand people, recognizing them by sight.
In the new study, Dunbar reviewed the 3375 Facebook users between the ages of 18 to 65. On average, users had 150 subscribers, of which a person could expect to 4.1 during the "emotional crisis" and compassion ever expressed 13.6
These numbers converge with Dunbar's study of friendship in the real world. The dimensions of the two inner circles of friendship are no different from offline examples, the author says. And if a user has much more than 150 friends on a social network, nothing will change. Active users of social media do not have more friends in real life than those people who use social networks less often.
The study also showed that the younger the user, the more friends he has on the network. And older people have more friends in real life.
The results of the study confirm the obvious: each of us has a limited amount of time and emotional forces for social interactions, both online and in real life. In any case, social networks give us one advantage - we can contact a large base of people at any time and maintain relationships with them.
Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.
How many friends on social networks do you have?
- 37.8% Up to 50,577
- 24.5% Up to 100 375
- 24.8% Up to 200,379
- 11.4% Up to 1000 174
- 1.3% More than 1000 20
How many of them can you help?
- 70.4% Up to 5 1035
- 25.1% Up to 15,369
- 2.7% Up to 30 40
- 0.8% Up to 50 13
- 0.2% Up to 100 4
- 0.5% Over 100 8
With how many friends on social networks do you stay in touch with in the real world?
- 40.7% Up to 5,600
- 41.8% Up to 15,617
- 14.3% Up to 50,212
- 1.6% Up to 100 25
- 1.3% Over 100 20