The Rise Of Social Media Has Changed How Some View Friendship In Boston

Jim MacKay reports.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you ask people about their social media friends.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm about six hundred, have roughly about hundred plus friends.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Yeah, the number is a lot different compared to the
real deal friends.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Real live friends, about ten lessen ten. Oh.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Let's say, what if I told you we had the
capability as humans to handle one hundred and fifty stable relationships.
It's all part of something called Dunbar's number, based off
of British anthropologists and psychologist Robin Dunbar, who came up
with the theory in connection to our hunter gatherer instincts.
But in the digital age things are more complicated.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
All my Facebook friends, I actually my friends.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Most people could count their ride or die friends on
one hand, but when it came to social media, the
possibilities were endless. On the common Jim McKay w PZ,
Boston's news radio