The majority of your friends on Facebook do not care about you, and you can’t rely on them if you are in trouble.
According to a study by Robin Dunbar – the man behind Dunbar’s number – people who have 150 friends on Facebook can only rely on 4.1 of them during an “emotional crisis,” and only 13.6 ever express sympathy.
Engadget reported that Dunbar analysed a UK study of 3,375 Facebook users between the ages of 18 and 65.
“The sizes of the two inner friendship circles did not differ from those previously identified in offline samples,” said Dunbar.
Having more than 150 followers does not change things much, stated the report.
“Heavy users of online social media do not have larger offline social networks than casual users, even though more of these may appear online for heavy users.”
He said social networks encourage the “promiscuous friending” of individuals, who often have tenuous links to a user.
