How many Facebook friends must one have before one’s bustling Facebook network becomes stressful? A new study out of Edinburgh Napier University suggests not too many. The study quizzed 200 students on their use of Facebook and discovered that “for a significant number of users the negative effects of Facebook outweighed the benefits of staying in touch with friends and family.”
12% of students indicated that Facebook made them feel anxious. These students had on average 117 Facebook friends. The other 88% of students who did not indicate that Facebook made them anxious had on average only 75 friends.
It’s interesting to note that both of these friend figures fall well below Dunbar’s number of 148. Could it be that even 117 social relationships are too many for our primitive brains to cope with? I think the jury is still out, although Dunbar’s research would suggest a positive correlation between social network size and the relative difficulty of managing a social network.
Other interesting number’s from the Edinburgh Napier Study include:
• 63 percent of respondents delayed replying to friend requests
• 32 percent said rejecting friend requests led to feelings of guilt and discomfort
• 10 percent admitted disliking receiving friend requests
These findings could lead one to ask questions like: how many brand relationships are too many? Do “like” solicitations for brand fan pages bring about similar discomforts like friend requests? How many boxes of girl scout cookies does it take to bring about cookie overload?
For those of you unfamiliar with Dunbar’s number and how it relates to human social networks, here is a nice video interview from 2010 that addresses the issue of Facebook and social network size.
2 Responses
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Lynn Smaagaard Says:
I wonder how this study of “Facebook” friends compares to a study of how many “real” friends a person can successfully maintain before it becomes stressful. I also wonder how this stress impacts a persons use of Facebook or impression of facebook. Like anything, Facebook like the phone – the mail – email is just another method of contact. The more contacts, the more stressful. Not because I have too many friends, it is that I don’t have enough time!
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Dawn Says:
I have 135 friends on FB, but I don’t regularily communicate with that many. FB is nice for quick interactions and updates, but I still prefer a long phone chat or a letter for deeper, more meaningful conversations. I agree with the comment above regarding time. If only there was more time!
