BUZZ NEWS

Social Networks: Friends or Pretend Friends?

Posted on February 3, 2009
Kristen R.

First of all, what is Dunbar’s number?

It’s “a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships” (Wikipedia). This limit is determined by the size of the human neocortex (the region of the brain that is responsible for, among other things, perception and reaction). On average, this number is estimated to be 150 people. The concept is named after the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar who published a study on the topic in 1983. Since 2000, the theory has become widely popular in the world of marketing thanks to Malcolm Gladwell.

Why is Dunbar’s number important?

With the arrival of social networks, the number of contacts and relationships one has to manage has grown exponentially. The multitude of platforms (social networks, blogs, microblogs, video and photo sharing websites, discussion forums, etc.) and the growing number of our “friends” and “followers” demands more and more of our time.
As marketing becomes more integrated into social tools, it is necessary to get to know their real potential and their limits. The question is: Do these new technologies increase our Dunbar’s number? If they do, what are the consequences of an increased Dunbar’s number?

According to Jason Heller’s article, “Just how far can we push the Dunbar Number?” published in December 2008 and the “Social Networks That Matter: Twitter Under The Microscope“ study, new technologies have two major impacts on the Dunbar number.

First off, while it’s possible to increase the Dunbar number thanks to social tools, this increase comes at a price: the greater the number, the smaller the value of each relationship.

Secondly, the distinction between our friends and our "Facebook, Twitter, etc." friends is telling. The reasons are clear: we simply don’t have the time to interact regularly with all of our contacts. (For more information on this subject, you should read "Social Networks That Matter: Twitter Under The Microscope").

Conclusion: social networks have become a real part of our lives and they won’t disappear anytime soon. Their creators are in the process of finding ways to monetize them in order to ensure their future (read the article about Facebook’s new monetization project here). Users should ask themselves whether these tools are truly useful and whether they add value to their lives, or whether they have merely become slaves to the tools. Marketers are currently making their own analysis and this is certainly a subject we will be following up on. Stay tuned…