Social Nets and Dunbar's Number

Dunbar’s Number (Dn) is a theoretical “cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships”, according to this Wikipedia article about its originator; British anthropologist Robin Dunbar.  He proposed that this limit was a function of neocortical size, i.e that the ability of a person to understand  all of the complex relationships inherent in a community group was limited by the capacity of the neocortex to process the information.

Web 2.0 applications that promote social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are subject to the same social forces that govern our real life social interactions, so it’s reasonable to assume that Dunbar’s Number applies here as well.

The theory doesn’t propose a precise number, but it’s generally understood to be approximately 150 individuals. Looking at “followers” lists on the social nets and blogs that I inhabit (or keep occasional tabs on), it’s hard to imagine that a single individual could count each of the thousands of listed friends or followers as participants in a meaningful relationship.  In Ashton Kucher’s twitterverse, for example, his aplusk twitter page currently lists 4,437,990 followers – but he’s only following 304.  Smart guy – he’s keeping fairly close to the Dn limit.

Blogger Seth Godin suggests that this is the reason social groups or tribes that exceed the Dn limit split in two soon after hitting it. It also explains the regular emergence of sub-sects in religious groups where a group of disgruntled disciples separate from a parent group to form their own version of religious devotion.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Our Brains Weren’t Built for Facebook (trueslant.com)
• Increasing the Dunbar Number (broadstuff.com)
• Seth Godin Misunderstands Dunbar’s Number, And Stubs His Toe (stoweboyd.com)

[Via http://tickerr.wordpress.com]