What's the ideal number of friends? According to a recent BBC article, the average number of close friends someone has is 5 (making Friends fairly accurate). The maximum number of close friends most people can handle is 6-12. If one examines wider circles, the count goes up to about 150:
"They usually consist of an inner circle of five "core" people and an additional layer of 10, he says. That makes 15 people - some will probably be family members - who are your central group and then outside that, there's another 35 in the next circle and another 100 on the outside. And that's one person's social world."
At a latest count, I am at 1448 Facebook friends. A little excessive, perhaps, but if you consider the number of AIESEC conferences I've been to (most of whom, admittedly, I became close to during the conference but I regrettably neglected to keep up with after wards), the amount of traveling I've done, and the student organizations I'm in, it makes sense.
In AIESEC Miami, there were about 40 members when I joined sophomore year, dropped to a measly 10 during my junior year, and has since grown to about 65. Considering those who graduated and those who've left the organization, this tends to add up. Alpha Omicron Pi: Joined Spring of sophomore year. A solid 150 members after recruitment every Spring. 150 members have graduated and moved on since I was a pledge, so that adds up to 300 members total. Add in the Water Ski team, College Dems, and it certainly adds up! Not to mention the rest of my friends come from meeting people in classes, in my dorm Freshman and Sophomore year, random encounters at parties, family members, etc. Whew!
Some claim that Facebook has made friendship less meaningful. While this argument has its validity, I tend to disagree. Facebook, along with other networking sites has made it easier to keep in touch with people. How else would I be able to remember who I know in Atlanta, so I can let them know that I'll be driving through on Sunday and want to meet up for breakfast?
I remember thinking freshman year, while I frantically wrote down names of people I was meeting at the earlier social events, "How did people make friends before Facebook?" Obviously the answer is simple: they collected phone numbers instead of stalking once they got home, but now things just seem so much easier.
Thank you technology for making me feel a lot more popular than I probably really am.
"They usually consist of an inner circle of five "core" people and an additional layer of 10, he says. That makes 15 people - some will probably be family members - who are your central group and then outside that, there's another 35 in the next circle and another 100 on the outside. And that's one person's social world."
At a latest count, I am at 1448 Facebook friends. A little excessive, perhaps, but if you consider the number of AIESEC conferences I've been to (most of whom, admittedly, I became close to during the conference but I regrettably neglected to keep up with after wards), the amount of traveling I've done, and the student organizations I'm in, it makes sense.
In AIESEC Miami, there were about 40 members when I joined sophomore year, dropped to a measly 10 during my junior year, and has since grown to about 65. Considering those who graduated and those who've left the organization, this tends to add up. Alpha Omicron Pi: Joined Spring of sophomore year. A solid 150 members after recruitment every Spring. 150 members have graduated and moved on since I was a pledge, so that adds up to 300 members total. Add in the Water Ski team, College Dems, and it certainly adds up! Not to mention the rest of my friends come from meeting people in classes, in my dorm Freshman and Sophomore year, random encounters at parties, family members, etc. Whew!
Some claim that Facebook has made friendship less meaningful. While this argument has its validity, I tend to disagree. Facebook, along with other networking sites has made it easier to keep in touch with people. How else would I be able to remember who I know in Atlanta, so I can let them know that I'll be driving through on Sunday and want to meet up for breakfast?
I remember thinking freshman year, while I frantically wrote down names of people I was meeting at the earlier social events, "How did people make friends before Facebook?" Obviously the answer is simple: they collected phone numbers instead of stalking once they got home, but now things just seem so much easier.
Thank you technology for making me feel a lot more popular than I probably really am.
posted by caitie at
1:03 PM
3 Comments:
I agree - I don't think Facebook makes friendships less meaningful. It makes it way easier to plan get-togethers!
I completely disagree! But only in the sense that I think people don't make a necessary distinction between "friend" and "acquaintance". Or maybe that's just because Facebook doesn't give us that option.
I recently trimmed my friends list from a modest 500+ to its current size of about 130, so it's comforting to know that I conform with statistics. Most of the people that were cut I had spoken to once, got friended on FB, and then never heard from again. And I'd probably never actually call them out if I passed through town anyway, so I figure no big loss.
Anyway, I made a big dramatic post about it on my blog, so I'll stop the word vomit here o_o
Nah. You ARE that popular!
<3
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