Blog Post 4 - Vanessa Bruzzese

 For this weeks blog post, I decided to look at Dunbar's Number and the Social Brain Hypothesis. As Dunbar's number is rooted in the notion that the average group sizes of people has historically been roughly 150 people, it can be applied today to how many people tend to be in an individuals circle. According to Dunbar, people have 5 close friends, 15 good friends, and 50 friends and anything other that is to be considered an acquaintance. As this was based on historic primal groups, this number is now debated to be outdated. This is based in the idea that social media allows people to know many more people than ever before. Many people I know, myself included, have well over 150 people on social media apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. This does not take away from the fact that the exceeding number is likely to fit Dunbar's friends or acquaintances category. 

When it comes to Dunbar's Social Brain Hypothesis, although applicable in the past, to argue that today people's social networks average out to 150 tends to be outdated because of such social media sites. The ability to have endless amounts of "friends" through the click of a button diminishes the likelihood of people's social orbit remaining at 150. 




Comments

  1. Liam BarwellNovember 10, 2022 at 9:11 AM

    Hi Vanessa,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog post as I too find Dunbar’s number to be very interesting. When it comes to the idea that Dunbar’s theory is “outdated”, I personally believe that this is only true in the eyes of social media and our technologically driven society. Yes, a significant number of users who use social media have a following of much more then Dunbar’s number of 150 people. But when you really look at it, out of the hundreds, thousand, and even millions of people we may follow, how many of them would fit into the categories of Dunbar’s number? This number may be outdated in the eyes of social media, but what percentage of our following and followers do we know? Even on a casual level. I’m very confident that if we all sat down and determined if our followers and following fit into the categories of Dunbar’s number, the result would be a lot closer to 150 then you think.

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  2. Elizabeth KvilNovember 13, 2022 at 3:28 PM

    Hello Vanessa,
    I totally agree with what you are saying. In our new era, social media apps have become less intimate as individuals mainly focus on how many followers or online friends they can get. Dunbar's number is not as accurate now as it may have been in the past. The 150 mark has been passed by many individuals on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. In my experience, myself and many of my friends have over 150 people on all of their social media apps.

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