British psychologist Will Reader presented research today suggesting that social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace do not help users make genuinely close friends. Users may amass hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, however Reader claims that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.
The research, based on a survey of 200 social network users, appears to support previous theories that a typical friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people who we keep in touch with less regularly. By decreasing the costs of maintaining relationships, sites like Facebook make it easy to extend one’s network of 150 acquaintances. But social networking seems to have little impact on the close personal relationships that people establish.
I couldn’t find a link to published paper yet, but the Guardian has a story here. Let us know what you think based on your experience. Is Reader’s research correct?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Kevin Gamble // Sep 11, 2007 at 2:06 pm
The research just confirms what we have known for a very long time. Our ability to handle a certain number of close friendships is baked-in. The tools used to communicate with those friends doesn’t matter.
2 David Karpin // Sep 12, 2007 at 9:10 am
It’s true that real friends are found only on the real world, but I fell that once you’ve made a friend, keeping in touch will him through a social network site is easy and gives another aspect to the relationship.
It will be interesting to read the research paper. I haven’t been able to find it on-line too. If someone knows to locate it, I’ll be happy to know.
3 Katrina // Sep 22, 2007 at 10:14 pm
From personal experience I would have to somewhat agree that social networking will add to your list of aquaintances. However, I have found online relationships can actually extend into real life and social networks can help you develop deeper friendships.
The advantage of social networking sites make it easier to keep in touch with more people with less effort. So in essence people are getting lazier in actually trying to develop and maintain friendships.
4 Graeme Cartwright // Sep 23, 2007 at 9:17 am
We all know that comunication is the key to any relationship. I dont think Facebook or myspace ever claimed to increase peoples friends as such. They provide a platform for networking, the rest is up to you. It comes down to a more personal question of what the individual is trying to achieve by using these sites. Sure, someone may have 150 friends, but at this time in the world who could maintain 150 friendships at a close & personal level. These sites remind me of walking down the hallway in highschool. Hey I know that guy & that girl, but are they really my close friends? No. Are they aquaintences? Yes. But moreover, at least the platform is provided to sort of ‘check in’ & see what people are up to nowadays. Im sure so many people have wondered what had happened to so many people after dispersing into the ‘real world’, and now all of a sudden its at our fingertips. Kind of like a digital peeping tom if you will. Now that sounds pretty fuct up, but it just goes to show the laziness of us as humans in this day and age. In one hand, its a very old way to communicate – by writing. But in the other hand the principals of that have been taken advantage of & left us where we are today. Like a bunch of weak fiending cyber zombies that become glued to our computer screens in a fantasy world all its own, until we actually decide to wake up & reach out through the strength of communication.
5 J. S. Cynthia // Nov 19, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Maybe the older you are the more you are restricted in thinking about what you want in the way of friends. Maybe older (pre-digital) people can’t figure out how to deal with friends of more than 10. For the digital age, maybe these people don’t need to speak or interact in person to feel a friendship exisits. Bill Clinton says the 21st centruy is the interdependent century. Maybe everyone needs to be friend, or no one. Maybe “friends” is an old concept, outdated.
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