(no subject)

[camrogers]

Someone once explained Dunbar's Number to me, but it didn't 100% stick. Here's a great article on it, why that number may be changing as things like Facebook serve as an aid-to-memory, and whether or not that's entirely a positive thing.

Is there a numerical cap on how many friends we can have?

As users of Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites pile up hundreds, even thousands, of "friends," several commentators and news articles have cautioned that there is a natural limit to a friendship circle. They typically cite the so-called Dunbar's number, 150, as a ceiling on our personal contacts. This limit was derived by extrapolating from social groups in nonhuman primates and then crediting people with greater capacity because of our larger neocortex, the part of the brain used for conscious thought and language.

But there is reason to believe that the social-networking sites will enable their users to burst past Dunbar's number for friends, just as humans have developed and harnessed technology to surpass their physical limits on speed, strength and the ability to process information.

Robin Dunbar, an Oxford anthropologist whose 1993 research gave rise to the magical count of 150, doesn't use social-networking sites himself. But he says they could "in principle" allow users to push past the limit. "It's perfectly possible that the technology will increase your memory capacity," he says.

The question is whether those who keep ties to hundreds of people do so to the detriment of their closest relationships -- defined by Prof. Dunbar as those formed with people you turn to when in severe distress.

Following that up is an article on 'Facebook whales'...

Facebook, which has swept universities and workplaces around the country, is one of Britain's most popular social networks in a country obsessed with the concept. While researchers say most people maintain about 150 relationships using such websites, MacLeod is part of a burgeoning group nicknamed "Facebook whales" by employees at the Silicon Valley company.

In Britain, there are just a handful of whales - people who have strung together more than 1,000 virtual friends - predominantly celebrities who have been contacted by eager fans, and often employ people to administer their entries. Stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr has reached the Facebook-imposed limit of 5,000 friends, while fellow comic Russell Brand is at 4,900.

Actor, presenter and Guardian columnist Stephen Fry was forced to go into hiding on the site after being inundated with friend requests. He now channels his fans towards a "proxy group" which numbers almost 11,500.

... and a new study that seems to have a lock on working out if you're a narcissist just by looking at your Facebook page.

The researchers found that the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. Buffardi said this is consistent with how narcissists behave in the real-world, with numerous yet shallow relationships. Narcissists are also more likely to choose glamorous, self-promoting pictures for their main profile photos, she said, while others are more likely to use snapshots.

Untrained observers were able to detect narcissism, too. The researchers found that the observers used three characteristics – quantity of social interaction, attractiveness of the individual and the degree of self promotion in the main photo – to form an impression of the individual's personality. "People aren't perfect in their assessments," Buffardi said, "but our results show they're somewhat accurate in their judgments."

Narcissism is a trait of particular interest, Campbell said, because it hampers the ability form healthy, long-term relationships. "Narcissists might initially be seen as charming, but they end up using people for their own advantage," Campbell said. "They hurt the people around them and they hurt themselves in the long run."

Comments

[hestia.livejournal.com]

Love that "wanker" graphic. :)

I did a mini cyberethnography for uni the year before last and found at least one study focussing on the "friending" problems of LJ in particular. The word "friend" in online life undergoes a long and painful reworking of meaning for a lot of people creating lots of what people snidely refer to as "drama".

[greylock.livejournal.com]

My, they are indeed skungy punks.

There has never been a time when I have worried over the spareness of my LJ or IRL 'friends lists'. In fact, usually I decide it's too large and cut it back.

This stuck me: "People aren't perfect in their assessments," Buffardi said, "but our results show they're somewhat accurate in their judgments."

I was bought up with the whole "Don't judge a book by it's cover" and all that nonsense, but life has taught me that, pretty much, my first impressions are usually right. If I form important first impressions. Quite often I don't anymore.

[eyeseedepths.livejournal.com]

Using Facebook is certainly an interesting social experiment: which I am still playing with (with caution). It is a weird place of very little content, and lots of self promotion...enough to bring out the narcissist in anybody.

@greylock, about first impressions: there are studies saying that this is exactly how the human brain has developed. We are pre-wired to make far better decisions immediately than upon reflection: in fact the likelihood that we make an incorrect assessment increases with the time we dwell upon something.

See, for example:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10920&feedId=online-news_rss20
and others...

Facebook could be seen as full of only first impressions on constant repeat, if that makes sense?

[patchworkkid.livejournal.com]

Other studies show that humans tend to become paralysed when presented with too much choice, as well, preferring to be able to make a quick decision between two or three things.

Maybe it's just me, but I find factoids like this and the one you mentioned handy for keeping life sane.

[eyeseedepths.livejournal.com]

Heaven knows...I need to keep reminding myself of these facts too.

I am so prone to acting like a "rabbit caught in headlights", when confronted with too many options. And, after seeing the research about decision making, vowed to myself to just "make decisions, dammit".

And yes, a touch of sanity is handy every now and again...