One of the many beauties about social networking is the sheer number of connections you can actually develop across the globe. Some of you may have close to 1,000 friends or fans, but how many of those people do you interact with on a consistent basis? Well, let me answer that question for you – 150.
Many of you may have read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point,” where he points out that our maximum social channel capacity is, to be exact, 147.8. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar tested this theory back in 1992 as he researched different hunter-gatherer tribes, military organizations and religious groups throughout the world. And now, almost 10 years later, Facebook stats indicate the average number of friends someone actually has within their network is 150. Coincidence? According to Dunbar’s study, 150 is the number of relationships we can have and still maintain our ability to interact and know how each person relates one another. Maybe the new Google+ categorization aspect will trick our brains as we organize our connections into smaller circles? Or at least it will help us keep track of who those top 150 people are in our lives!
How many people do you interact with on a consistent basis? Do you think you defy this rule?
