blog post #4 - kim browne
For this week’s Blog post, I wanted to look at Dunbar's theory that our social networks of 150 people related to our lives on social media. His theory of the social brain stems from the social grooming of primates that allowed them to bond with each other and establish their social circles. According to Dunbar, this grooming evolved drastically due to tele-technological devices that let humans communicate through space and time.
Dunbar’s number can be divided into categories which include close friends, good friends, friends and acquaintances (which include all the people in the prior categories). He suggests that you most likely hang out with a core group of 50 friends and the rest are casual acquaintances. In our generation, hearing this may or may not be surprising. Among our various social media platforms, some have 300, 600 and 1000+ followers. However, this has become a norm with social media because we can make endless “friends” through sites such as Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat. However, Dunbar would question whether these people are truly your friends since they don’t run within your circle. By sifting through your followers, most of the time, you realize you may not even really know that person personally or only know them through mutual friends. It’s interesting to see how social media has put us in contact with more people and has allowed us to digitally pass on more information than we would ever encounter without the evolution of communication technology. Do you agree with the Dunbar number of 150 and think it’s accurate? I’ve attached a picture below that shows the people categorized within the 150 versus outside of it.
Great post Kim!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that today, we can take Dunbar's number and use it and apply it in different manners as opposed to the ways in which it was first used when it was created. That being said, I can agree with the picture that you attached, as in light of social media, users tend to have the ability to form relationships with not only those that are around them but people on social media, whether that mean new found friends or family in other parts of the world. I would then also agree with the idea that people are able to acquaint themselves with and recognize over 150 people. Could the range of 500 - 1500 be a bit large? Possibly but also with social media, for some, maybe not. For these reasons, I would say that although Dunbar's number may look a little different today with the number range, the framework can still be applicable.