Now it is Facebook, I was invited to join. Of course I did it, as I was curious about recent hype around it. I have send some invitations to make some friends there (sorry guys for bothering you), so I didn't feel too lonly and could look around what other's use Facebook for.
When I was browsing I got a strange feeling of being overwhelmed. I thought about all those available applications, the amount of informations, groups, contacts, blogs ... Isn't it too much?
And this morning I read a comment by Sobleizer to a post Jason Calacanis being fed up with Facebook:
"I’ve been on Facebook, what, about six weeks? I have more than 4,000
friends [...]"
Come on - 4.000 friends?! How on earth can you call 4.000 people for your friends.
Robin Dunbar proposed in 1990s 150 to be the maximum number of people with whom any of us can maintain a social relationship; maintain meaning: hold in mind, have feelings for, keep track of. Others claim it is only 70. This is simply the physical limit our brains have.
There is the huge gap between 150 and 4.000, and our brains couldn't change within such a short time. Evolution takes centuries, as it happens vertically - from generation to generation. Besides our brains were developed 250.000 years ago! There were no computers at that time. What happened then that we have so many "friends" (I'd rather call them contacts) and claim to be able to hande it? There is defenitely huge social value of having lots of "friends", it is the sign of our popularity, and that's what we hunger for - being appreciated. Social media, all LinkedIn, Facebooks, twitters, and so on, enabled us to become really popular in the style of old mass media stars. I think the heavy social media users don't storage all their cotacts in their heads, they use simply social media as virtual storage space. Everytime they need to fullfil any need, they look up in their social life hard drive and choose the person that it is the best for it. The friends/contacts are being activated physically when needed. It is smart, but still overwhelming for me. I guess I will take Facebook with small steps.
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