Facebook friends likely not

Real friends rare among Facebook hordes     By Misty Harris, Canwest News Service Kris Krug has 2,534 "friends" on Facebook. Rob Trick has 1,924. And Sarah Pull-man counts a modest 562 men and women among her virtual besties.

But according to new findings by Cameron Mar-low, the social networking site's research scientist, it's unlikely these three Canadians enjoy frequent online interaction with more than 22 of their so-called friends, and unlikelier still that they enjoy regular two-way communication such as e-mail or online chats with more than 13.

Facebook users with 120 friends--the average for the site--fare marginally better than the "500-plus" group, in terms of their friend-to-interaction ratio. Men share frequent comment exchanges with seven of their friends, and regular two-way conversations with four; women leave comments for 10 and communicate with six.

Pullman, a 29-year-old Canadian attending university in California, says the findings "feel about accurate," although she's bashful about revealing this, given the hundreds of people on her friend list.

Marlow's research is consistent with studies on ape behaviour that suggest biology restricts our capacity to function within groups larger than 150, known as "the Dunbar number."

The degree to which on-line friendships are meaningful seems to shrink as the network grows.

"Facebook is really good for keeping in touch with third-order friends--the ones on the periphery of your world that you don't usually call or talk to," says Krug, 32, a photographer from Vancouver. "It's not that good for keeping in touch with your secondorder friends-- the 12 or 20 people in your life that you really care about.And it's a really terrible way to keep in touch with first-order friends, like your lover or your spouse."

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