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Friends make you happy, healthy, and they'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour. But how many of them do you need? Turns out the show Friends had the science all figured out.
Back in the early 90s, British anthropologist Dr. Robin Dunbar came to an interesting conclusion: humans could likely only maintain social relationships with an average of 148 individuals due to the size of our brain's neocortex, or what's known as Dunbar's Number. More social information processing demands requires more cognitive resources, and we only have so much brain power. Basically, we tend to top out at having 150 meaningful relationships in our lives, whether they're family, friends, or casual acquaintances. Your Facebook might have hundreds or thousands of "friends," but a good chunk of them, if not most, are out of mind.
Later on, Dunbar's research led to the concept of "Dunbar's layers", where the emotional closeness between individuals was taken into account. This meant that your relationships looked more like layers instead of a cloud of 150 people. The closest layer has three to five people, the next layer has 15 people, then 50, and so on. That inner layer is what makes up your "vital friendships," or your inner circle of close friends. These are people that you should have in your life to meet up with regularly, talk about personal matters, and maintain a strong emotional connection. In the show Friends, each main character—Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Monica, and Chandler—these five people in their life, making it a pretty decent model to follow on a biological and sociological level. If you can manage to maintain three to five close friendships in the same way, you're far more likely be content. After all, who wouldn't be better off with people who will always be there for you?
https://lifehacker.com/this-is-how-many-friends-you-need-to-be-happy-1823425885
Do you agree with this premise ? If yes, where do you stand on the "number of friends" scale ?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 05 2018, @07:50PM (2 children)
I have only 2 close friends, those being my current girlfriend and an ex (not the crazy one) and maybe 10 acquaintances, and that's plenty enough. And several of those 10 are co-workers at either job. Some of us just don't seem to need as much social contact. I really would like a cat though...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:41AM (1 child)
Ever tried pet rats? They're really very sweet once you get to know them. All of the independence and intelligence of cats, with all of the affection of a dog. Animals of prey, so no real violent tendencies sitting beneath the surface (unless of course they're badly badly threatened, then cornered.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06 2018, @07:13AM
Cats will poop in the 1 place where they can bury it.[1]
You can even get a cat to poop into the toilet with something like Litter Kwitter. [google.com]
Rodents just poop wherever they are.
[1] Q. Why don't they allow lawyers at the beach?
A. Cats keep trying to bury them.
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