Dunbar’s Number
According to Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, 150 is the maximum number of personal relationships an individual can maintain at any given time.
“cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships”.
While this could explain Facebook’s generous 5,000 friends limit (though a tad on the upper side), what it doesn’t explain is the 2,000 odd contacts I maintain on my phone list. Though the number is a theoretical extrapolation based on the relative size of the noecortex in non-human primates, Dunbar might be onto something. While the number might vary based on your psychographic, it is clear that trying to maintain stable ‘meaningful’ relationships with more than 150 people is both time-consuming and impractical (unless you are a Member of Parliament under the Indian democracy).
My Dunbar is 172
I conducted a simple analysis and tracked back my E-Mail, Facebook and Twitter conversations as well as phone calls made over the past year. I highlighted interactions with a regularity of atleast once every 3 months. Based on this, my Dunbar’s number was a conservative 172. Do let me know about your Dunbar Number in comments below, approximations are welcome.
Interesting Reads
Anil Dash – Life on the List
Clive Thompson – In Praise of Online Obscurity
Photo Credit - Ol.v!er [H2vPk]
