Kenneth Slams the Facebook

Okay, horrid puns aside, fellow UK Fulbright scholar Kenneth Jones discusses his love/hate relationship with the mass effect of social networks:

(Because of my recent move to the UK, much of my contact with friends back in the States is thanks to Facebook.)

But then there’s everyone else on your friends list.

Have you heard of Dunbar’s number? Anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests that there is a number of friends that the average human being can have, wherein the individual knows every single one of them reasonably well and, here’s the clincher, knows how every friend relates to every other friend. Robin Dunbar suggests that this number is approximately 150, which means I’ve exceeded the number by 173. Some people I know have exceeded that number by over 1000.

You can read all of Kenneth’s thoughts at his blog. I’m curious, as Facebook moves away from the network philosophy that originally themed the site, if Dunbar’s number may truly triumph over six degrees of separation as theory.