How many friends can you really rely on? Before you answer, you might NOT want to base that number on your collection of Facebook friends. According to a study recently published by the Royal Society of Open Science, no matter how many friends you have on Facebook – and no matter how much you interact with them online– you can only rely on about four of those people to be there for you when it really matters.
With more than 1 billion daily active users Facebook comes in at one of the largest social networks in the world it looks like this study is telling us that all your Facebook friends might not have your back if you need in a time of crisis. This report was designed to examine whether social media has expanded our real-life social circles. It was conducted by Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford, who previously published a paper claiming humans can only handle approximately 150 meaningful relationships at once – now known as “Dunbar’s number.” As such, this study is the first real attempt to test whether online social media do allow us to increase the size of our social networks.
The study surveyed 2,000 social-media-using adults of various ages in the U.K. and 1,375 adults who work 9-to-5 jobs. According to the sample, although the average person surveyed had more than 150 Facebook friends, only four of those friends were considered part of a “support clique” – defined as friends you could depend on for support in a time of crisis. As for close friends – you know the people who might not be a source of unwavering support, but still show they care about you? The study found people had an average of just 13 friends in that category. What Dunbar found was consistent with previous studies into the size of typical individuals’ relationship networks – 4-5 very close individuals, around 14-15 close friends, and additional layers of friends and acquaintances of up to 1,500 people.
With all that in mind, people with more Facebook friends (because young people and women were found to have larger online networks) did not report having more close friends in general. The research seems to be telling us that the way in which our social world is constructed is part and parcel of our biological inheritance. Most people fit into a pattern. There are social circles beyond it and layers within it. The layers within are usually a small number of trusting friends with everyone else outside.
The bottom line here is if you are apprehensive about deleting friends on Facebook don’t be. Of those hundred’s you might have following you, this sudy would suggest there are really only a handful that got your back in a time of crisis.
TEDxObserver – Robin Dunbar – Can the internet buy you more friends?
