Do online social media cut through the constraints that limit the size of offline social networks?

ABSTRACT: The social brain hypothesis has suggested that natural social network sizes may have a characteristic size in humans. This is determined in part by cognitive constraints and in part by the time costs of servicing relationships. Online social networking offers the potential to break through the glass ceiling imposed by at least the second of these, potentially enabling us to maintain much larger social networks. This is tested using two separate UK surveys, each randomly stratified by age, gender and regional population size. The data show that the size and range of online egocentric social networks, indexed as the number of Facebook friends, is similar to that of offline face-to-face networks. For one sample, respondents also specified the number of individuals in the inner layers of their

SUBMITTER: Dunbar RI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4736918 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature