Human Brain Places Limit On Twitter Friends 176
Hugh Pickens writes "Back in early '90s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar began studying human social groups, measuring the number of people an individual can maintain regular contact with, and came up with 150 — a number that appears to be constant throughout human history — from the size of neolithic villages to military units to 20th century contact books. But in the last decade, social networking technology has had a profound influence on the way people connect, vastly increasing the ease with which we can communicate with and follow others, so it's not uncommon for tweeters to follow and be followed by thousands of others. Now Bruno Goncalves has studied the network of links created by three million Twitter users over four years. After counting tweets that are mutual and regular as signifying a significant social bond, he found that when people start tweeting, their number of friends increases to a saturation point until they become overwhelmed. Beyond that saturation point, the conversations with less important contacts start to become less frequent and the tweeters begin to concentrate on the people they have the strongest links with. So what is the saturation point? The answer is between 100 and 200, just as Dunbar predicts. 'This finding suggests that even though modern social networks help us to log all the people with whom we meet and interact,' says Goncalves, 'they are unable to overcome the biological and physical constraints that limit stable social relations (PDF).'"
Re:150 friends cap for Twitter, OK. But... (Score:3, Insightful)
150 twitter 'friends' is equivalent to 150 trillion Facebook friends, because Facebook friends have no value.
Not true. (Score:2, Insightful)
In one IRC chatroom alone there could be 150+ regular chatters. Across a dozen of these there could be well over 1000.
It's not difficult to be in contact with hundreds of different people every day for months.
Re:Makes sense (Score:3, Insightful)
As for Twitter... nobody on there should count toward anything. Twiter is about whoring yourself out just like all the other social networks. It's about spreading yourself around to boost your ego (or your business). It's not about listening or having a bi-directional friendship.
I don't use Twitter, but I do use Facebook for real social interaction. In fact a lot of real world events I've gone to lately (meeting friends, parties, dancing events, even some business stuff) have been initialized through Facebook. As annoying as it is "social technology" has it's merits when applied properly and used like the tool it is.
Re:bu..sh.t (Score:5, Insightful)
Well... Human brains indeed cannot deal with speeds over 75 mph on ancient roads... we've had to build huge nearly straight roads where you have an excellent view and where you can anticipate things half a mile ahead. If we would be going 75 mph on roads of the quality of the 1800's, we'd all be dead within a year.
Humans adapt their surroundings a lot faster than they'll adapt their own brains.
Re:150 friends cap for Twitter, OK. But... (Score:4, Insightful)
150 twitter 'friends' is equivalent to 150 trillion Facebook friends, because Facebook friends have no value.
150 twitter friends is equal to one friends phone number.
maybe its just me, but if im not texting-calling you then really we aren't friends, we are acquaintances