Thered social Facebook it is capable of managing thousands of contacts. But for our brain, the limit of friends we can handle is 150, according to Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Oxford. His studies indicate that in human groups greater than that amount there is no cohesion and relationships deteriorate.
After studying various societies, from primitive Neolithic groups to a modern office, this researcher developed in the 1990s a theory, known as“Dunbar Number”, which holds thatthe part of the brain that we use for thinking and language limits the management of social circles to about 150 friendsregardless of how outgoing people may be. These are relationships with people who matter to you and with whom we maintain contact at least once a year. Social cohesion begins to deteriorate as groups get larger.
But has this changed with the“Facebook effect”? Preliminary results suggest not. “The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends in your social network, but when you really analyze the exchange of people, you see that people tend to maintain the same close circle, of around 150 people, that they maintain in the real world Dunbar says. Their studies also indicate that while women can manage relationships only through communication, even if it is at a distance, men need to maintain physical contact to stay together.
