How many of these friends would you sit down and have a drink with if you bumped into them at the bar? Anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests that the number of people you are comfortable enough to share a pint with is around one hundred and fifty. This “Rule of 150” is based upon the capacity of our brain’s neocortex; the part of the cerebral cortex associated with higher functions like sensory perception, spatial reasoning, language, and therefore – friendship maintenance. To truly know someone is to not only know them individually, but to also understand their relationship with every other member of your social network. Consequently, exceeding Dunbar’s Rule of 150 meaningful social ties typically results in neocortical processing overload. It is interesting to note that the statistics page on facebook claims that its average user has 130 friends. Although a quick browse through my own list yielded far more inflated results. So, how many facebook “friends” do you really have? Regardless of your personal opinion of these people (frienemies), I’ll bet that cognitive limitation scales your list back by the hundreds.
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