Wonder how many friends you are capable of maintaining? Answer: 150 (unless you are on Facebook)

If you are on Facebook, LinkedIn or Myspace and have more than 150 "friends" then you are either an exceptional networker or not everyone on your list is a real friend. This statement is made on the basis of the work of British anthropologist Robin Dunbar. Dunbar studied nonhuman primate populations to calculate the theoretical maximum number of individuals with whom a set of people can maintain a social relationship, something he called Dunbar's number. It turns out this number is 150.

But Dunbar's research was in 1993, well before social networks or even AOL's "buddy lists". Is it possible that Internet use facilitates increasing the number of people you can keep track of and maintain close social ties? Dunbar was asked this and he responded that they could "in principle."

The WSJ wrote on Dunbar's number and social networks:

In the past, new friends and contacts might have replaced old ones as you graduated from college, switched jobs, or moved to a new city. Now, old friends can stick around alongside the new ones on your MySpace. When you have occasion to call on one of them, a page contains all the vital stats you'll need to renew the acquaintance.

If the numbers game sounds tawdry to you, you'd fit in with the U.K. researchers, who are looking at the effects of such friend-hoarding. "The cheapness of communication is a double-edged sword," Dr. Reader says. Whereas you might enrich your life with more contacts, the things that are "important for intimate friendships," such as presents, meals and a ride in your car, he says, don't exist.

In short, social networks are a great augmentation to friend circles and not a replacement to true social interaction.

Facebook is not just for the young. LifeTwo is putting together a Facebook "group" on Facebook and will be publishing information on it shortly. In the meantime if you are already on Facebook you can link to us in advance. If you are unsure about this, just sign up for the LifeTwo newsletter and you'll get all of the details as they are announced.