Who says we can't have more friends? (thanks @geoffliving)

I haven't read the source and admit I'm uneducated on Dunbar's assumption that our brains can only handle 150 relationships.

No matter how he comes up with that number.. he didn't include all the tools we have today.

Let's stipulate that we are using a new defination of friendship. There are limits to how many people we can spend time with in person.. but so what?

When I get a tweet from a Twitter friend I talk to every day who says "I hope we get to meet some day" I'm a bit confused.

"Didn't we meet last year?"

"No, I mean "in person"

"Yes, that would be nice.. but would be be closer friends?"

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Put simply, our minds are not designed to allow us to have more than a very limited number of people in our social world. The emotional and psychological investments that a close relationship requires are considerable, and the emotional capital we have available is limited.

Indeed, no matter what Facebook allows us to do, I have found that most of us can maintain only around 150 meaningful relationships, online and off — what has become known as Dunbar’s number. Yes, you can “friend” 500, 1,000, even 5,000 people with your Facebook page, but all save the core 150 are mere voyeurs looking into your daily life — a fact incorporated into the new social networking site Path, which limits the number of friends you can have to 50. Read more at www.nytimes.com

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How Many Relationships Can On Person Maintain?

Dunbar said 150 and without social media technology, I think there is some validity to that. But let's think about the people we know.

I once thought that someone I had met, then not talked to again for years was a lost connection. How could they possibly rememeber me when I was murky in my memory at best?

But now that I use Twitter (and other social media) I find that those tenuous relationships can be quite powerful. I'll notice a photo that look like someone I met, check the name and link and realize I'd forgot a contact from year ago.

Now, many times at live events, and new client intake interviews, I talk to people who say "we met years ago" or "I saw you at ..."

The 150 barrier was broke from me when I started keeping up with people using 140 characters.

How about you?

Amplify’d from www.readwriteweb.com

Dunbar's Number, the theory that most people can maintain at most 150 stable interpersonal relationships, faces an unusual challenge in the time of social media. You may have more people than that add you as a follower on Twitter every month, week or maybe, every day. Half or more are robots, spammers or robot spammers. Read more at www.readwriteweb.com

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