Do you connect with contacts or collect contacts?
How many online connections do you have and how many do you actually keep in contact with?
Do you find it easy to stay connected? Or are you overwhelmed by the size of your network?
In the 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, suggested that there is a limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain 150 stable relationships (‘Dunbar’s number’).
A further breakout of Dunbar’s theory suggests:
A close inner circle of 5 people (your loved ones)
A layer of 15 good friends.
50 regular friends
150 meaningful contacts
500 acquaintances
1500 people you can recognise
People migrate in and out of these layers, but the idea is that space has to be created for any new entrants.
In his book ‘Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell describes how the leadership at W. L. Gore and Associates (known for Gore-Tex) restricted company buildings to 150 people to maintain social cohesiveness among their workforce. They started building company buildings with a limit of 150 employees and only 150 parking spaces. When the parking spaces were filled, the company would build another 150-employee building. Sometimes these buildings would be placed only short distances apart. By keeping employee numbers below 150, they found that colleagues knew each other’s names, they stayed much closer to the impact of their work and felt a greater sense of responsibility to their colleagues.
There has been some criticism of Dunbar’s work, some have suggested that a study of primates is not an accurate basis for predicting this number in humans. Some researchers have suggested the true number may actually be bigger.
In her book, Joy at work, Marie Kondo suggests the opposite. She advocates decluttering your network and keeping down to just a few meaningful contacts that you actually communicate with regularly.
What is your experience?
Is it better to keep a smaller, more intimate network?
Or should we be taking advantage of advancements in technology that enable us to connect with millions of people all over the world?
