Meaningful Relationships

The Dunbar Number - I didn't know existed before attending the lecture on Online Social Networks. However, the concept is a unique one - that one can have a meaningful relationship with only 150 people at a certain point in time. 150 is a big number if looked at in terms of having a meaningful relationship in person; especially nowadays when people hardly seem to have time for themselves.

But if 150 is applied to social networking sites, it doesn't seem that big number, or does it? For a lot of people this number wouldn't seem big considering the number of 'friends' they have on their friend's list on social networking sites; some people have more than 500 hundred friends, which seems quite unreal if looked at interms of having being able to have a "meaningful realtionship". And then for some people this number wouldn't seem really big as their purpose for joining social networking sites is to establish relationships beyond their "real life relationships".

The context in which people place the quantitative value of The Dunbar Number I think, completely depends on what they the term 'friend' on social networking sites constitutes to. Or even on what Judith Donath puts it as, Strong and Weak Ties; Strong ties being the close network of friends and Weak being the acquaintances. She however the idea about strong and weak ties in to a different direction; but just in realtion to The Dunbar Number, Donath's idea gives one a lot of flexibility regarding the formation of "meaningful realtionships" on SNS.