How Connected Are You?
There’s been plenty of research about how a person can only really connect with a certain number of people. This figure is called Dunbar’s number and is around 150. Essentially, Robin Dunbar (pictured at left), an anthropologist, has established the number of people that you can maintain stable relationships with: friends, family, co-workers — most people connect with around 150 people.
If you develop a new relationship, you may be unable to maintain an older relationship. (At least, if you have problems staying in touch, you can claim it’s Dunbar’s fault).
After learning about Dunbar’s theory, I started to think about how many relationships we are expected to maintain. With so many ways to reconnect with old classmates or to keep in touch with distant cousins, it seems like we’re expected to keep in touch with far more people than that 150 we’re actually able to.
To eliminate some of the stress in our lives that comes from having to keep up with everyone’s latest news, there is always the option of telling ourselves that it is simply okay not to know how our second and third cousins are doing, or give up on that third grade reunion we were hoping for.
But Dunbar himself says there is hope to expand that number. In a Wall Street Journal article last month, he was quoted as saying: "It’s perfectly possible that the technology will increase your memory capacity," citing social networks as a way to keep track of relationships, without carrying details around in your head.
The only real concern about going beyond Dunbar’s number is how well we will be able to maintain close relationships – like the ones with people you’re comfortable turning to in a crisis.
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