Bloc Post #4
In this week's post, I will speak about Robin Dunbar's social brain hypothesis. The social brain hypothesis is an explanation for the fact that primates evolve large brains to manage complex social systems. Dunbar suggested that the size of human social networks stabilizes at around 150 individuals, known as Dunbar's number. He broke it down into several categories: close friends(5), good friends (15), Friends (50), and acquaintances. When you apply the theory to social networking, people with thousands of followers on many different media accounts are not truly friends with that many people. Studies have shown that followers and friends on social media do not personally know most of these people, and some have probably never interacted with one another. I have almost 2000 followers on my social media. I can comfortably say that a significant majority of the people I have on social media if I were to see them face-to-face, I wouldn't approach them as I know them. I would go about my day without trying to interact with them because I don't feel like I know them on a personal level. The only version of them that I know is what I see on social media, which doesn't show someone's true identity of who they are in person.
-Antony Kaseba
Hello! Wow, 2000 is a lot of followers, but as you suggested through Dunbar's number... how many of those are true authentic relationships where they cared to look at your post because you are part of that person's 150 and they yours, and how many are just because someone happened to pass by your content and be 'friends' with you on social media. I like your point on comparing how you would react in person with these people. I myself can say the same. While I have 650+ followers compared to 2000, the same applies in that probably only 50-150 of those people I would interact with in person, and the rest avoid or not even know how to talk to them because they aren't truly my friends let alone am I acquainted with them. Most of my followers and following are people Ive happened to encountered at some point in my life and don't know much about them. As you said, the only version I know is of them on social media which is not someones true identity by which they present themselves with in person (if thats truly them even too and not a pre-calculated falsified representation of self).
ReplyDeleteHey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great blog post! I find it very interesting how although many people do have thousands of followers, many fail to know majority of these followers on a personal level. I feel like most of the time many people use the number of followers to dictate popularity regardless of how many one actually knows on a personal level.