LiveJournal and the Dunbar number

[vaneramos]

Eramosa River yesterday

Christopher Allen suggests social networking services such as LiveJournal overtax our limits for social interaction. There is a practical limit to the number of relationships we can successfully maintain. Anthropologist R.I.M. Dunbar places it around 150.

It doesn't take much imagination to see the validity of this. When my friends list exceeds 100 I experience meltdown. Meaningful interaction with more people is not sustainable. I have to take into account my immediate family, friends and a few other people I maintain contact with online. When peripheral relationships start breaking down or seeming superficial, my overactive sense of integrity kicks in and I freak out.

Allen proposes various mechanisms for keeping our social networks in proportion. In the long run it doesn't pay to attempt augmentation of our Dunbar number. Internet systems might offer tools for identifying and facilitating our most important relationships. Someday they might even automate development of additional relationships, Allen says:

For example, many Cyberpunk novels have suggested the ideas of avatars that can collect information for you on the 'net while your attention is elsewhere. Could these avatars likewise maintain more distant social networks for you, without your full attention? Would that function even be desirable?

What difference does introversion and extroversion make? Introverts seem to prefer a smaller number of higher-quality relationships. Perhaps my Dunbar number is even less than 150.

Then again, certain professionals such as politicians and medical doctors must find mechanisms for maximizing the extent of their relationships. This is probably true for journalists, too. I balk at the challenge of developing and maintaining necessary contacts including sources of information potential writing markets. But not all relationships need to be perpetuated. I can maintain contact long enough to achieve my purpose and then move on. Such opportunism does not come easily to me, so it's important to acknowledge that everyone is in the same situation. Each new contact cannot become a lifelong friend.

I have had to accept this on LiveJournal, too, by limiting the number of people I add to my friends list. But in the long run, even 100 is too high a number of real friends for me to sustain. For a long time I resisted the use of filters to keep up with my close friends; it seemed phony to add someone unless I intended to read their journals regularly.

I've begun to accept that some relationships must be superficial and transitory. A certain limited network is essential for survival, something proportionate to my Dunbar number. And I do not keep anyone on my friends list unless their journals interest me when I have time to read them. But when life becomes too complicated and I risk overextending myself, filters come in handy.