In the TEDxObserver video, “Can the internet buy you more friends?” Robin Dunbar shows that social media platforms such as Facebook have not fulfilled their promises of enlarging the social world. When Facebook was founded, the company said it would open up a global village, which ultimately didn’t happen. In reality, the modal number of Facebook friends is between 120 and 130 and most users only talk to a few friends. Dunbar argues that this is because of the Social Brain Hypothesis, which predicts group size for humans as 150.
Dunbar also shows fascinating correlations regarding human interaction. Research shows that the number of friends a person has is correlated with the size of a specific portion of their brain as it allows you to understand how others think. Dunbar shows that emotional closeness is determined by time invested, that three quarters of most people’s time is devoted to five close relationships and that people in romantic relationships tend to have less close friends because they can’t afford to spend time with other people. Dunbar also shows that satisfaction with friends in the digital world was much higher among those who used video platforms like Skype because of the immediacy of interaction.
This video was released in 2012, and I can’t help but wonder how the pandemic affected the way we interact with one another. The pandemic was extremely isolating for most people, and I imagine that it would have lasting effects on relationships. I am especially curious as to how the pandemic affected the social development of children, who rely so heavily on school and other peer interactions to understand society.
I also am interested to see how the pandemic affected school age children, who are just at the beginning of their relationship making. I also wonder if the 5 close relationships quota is relevant to young children, who may not necessarily have deep relationships but rather many childlike relationships, and relationships that inherently change over time as kids grow up and change.
I knew had heard of the term “global village” before, but after having researched the beginnings of Facebook, it makes sense that that was the goal. In addition, your point about the pandemic likely changing our interactions with others is an interesting one to think about. In terms of the 5(or fewer) “rule” for close friends, I wonder if this has gone down or up after the pandemic and the changes to our socialization.