I was delayed last night traveling and read about a study in Psychology Today while waiting for transportation.
According to this study, 302 is the optimal number of Facebook friends. Why? Psychologically, people with over 302 friends are viewed as being too focused on the “number” of friends vs relationships.
Quite intriguing!
I love the fact that we are seeing more and more psychology being considered around social. Too much attention to tools really does a disservice to the social space when ultimately it will be peoples behaviors and motivation that will lead to success
I had written a post about tools vs. behaviors last year that talked about this delicate balance:
http://greg2dot0.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/the-yin-and-yang-of-enterprise-2-0/
I can only imagine what that says about Twitter.
Greg: I love your article. Social is about people and therefore these types of studies and insights are right on target! Sandy
The number “302” is in the ballpark of Dunbar’s Number, which theorizes how many people you can know well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number
It makes sense that the number can be a bit bigger, as electronic communication allows us to maintain awareness of old friends which would otherwise fall off the intimate list.