The Facebook friend count is really a silly thing, if you think about it. Every Facebook user is limited to 5,000 total friends, but in reality, how many users can realistically keep up with that many “friendships”?
The truth is that most people cannot keep up with or manage more than 150 friends, regardless of a person’s sociable nature. According to a study done by an Oxford University anthropology professor, this is one of his key findings, and it is nothing new. While the study itself has yet to be published, you have to wonder about the accuracy of his results.
Let’s assume for the purpose of this post that the results indeed are accurate. How would that change the way you approach Facebook or any other social platform, for that matter?
I could say safely that most of my friends on Facebook have more than 150 friends. In the event a user has more than 150 friends, it could be worth limiting the number of people you see updates from (within the Facebook Live/News Feed Settings section). However, this would only be an effective way if a user keeps in touch with more than 150 people on a regular basis on the website—which is much more unlikely.
What can you do?
If you want to build the perfect 150 person network, it could be well worth starting fresh with your Facebook account. This doesn’t mean shutting down your current one and starting up a new one, but re-building your network from your perspective. For instance, you could start up an Excel spreadsheet and start tracking who/how often you interact with given users.
Facebook lists seem like they would come in handy here as well—as you continue to build your network from the ground up, you could place Facebook accounts in a specific group to keep closely in touch with them.
Why 150? Why not 100 or 200?
Everyone’s experiences on social networking websites are different, so obviously 150 people is not a set number. But in a way, it does become somewhat of a goal—managing 150 close friendships or relationships, even over social networking websites—could prove to be quite difficult.
Have you tried building a power network of around 100-150 users before? Let me know your thoughts on the approach or on the study findings in the comments.
(Photo Credit: Analumariano’s Blog)
