Dave Morin, CEO of Path explaining why the magic number for a social network is 150.
This video inspired me to read more about British behavioural anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar whose studies (originally with primates) revealed that the maximum number of social relationships that the human brain can maintain is 150. He also analysed Christmas card sending patterns! It was this piece of social research that lead Dave Morin to found Path – the alternative to Facebook that limits the amounts of friend conections you can have to 150. You can see below that 150, based on Dunbars findings, is a pretty social number.
Path calls itself “the smaller network that's built for the people you love”.
The average size of a group of primates (the most social animals) is 148
150 is the optimum size of a community that is incentivized to remain together
The average village size in the Doomsday book is 150.
The average size of a Neolithic farming community is 150
The basic size of an army of Roman soliders was 150
Military companies still consist of groups of 150 soliders
The average office building floor seats 150 employees
The active person on Facebook has approx. 300 friends. (Twitter is around 160 but that number is growing fast). So maybe next time you get a friend request, you might want to think a bit harder before accepting. You never know, you could actually be harming the quality of the relationships with those people that matter most to you.
The maths add up (consider them for yourself)...
5 people in your life are your best friends
15 people who you are willing to spend large quantities of time with
50 people usually make up your support network who you trust and have a stable relationship with
80 people make up our direct acquaintances and friends (of friends).
150 Friends
Food for thought eh....??