How much is too much?
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Tuesday April 20 2010
1 Too many friends? We can only cope with having 150 friends, according to Oxford anthropologist Robin Dunbar.
Throughout history, argues Dunbar, people have tended to organise themselves in groups of this size as larger groups lose their social cohesiveness.
And while lots of Facebookers have hundreds of friends, they tend to only communicate with about 150 of them anyway.
2 Too much information? Author Patrick Hamilton Walsh devoted a whole chapter of his book Is: The Phenomenon of the Facebook Status to those toe-curling status updates that fall under this heading.
The vast majority of Walsh's examples are sexually explicit, totally revolting and not the kind of thing you'd want a potential employer, for instance, to see if they went trawling for a background check online.
"People are developing alter egos of themselves because they think they're anonymous sitting behind a computer," says Patrick.
"But they have never been less anonymous. People have posted every detail they could think of about themselves up on Facebook and MySpace, from their favourite food to their phone number, with pictures to back everything up, so the whole world can see what they are about."
3 Too much time? Spending time on Facebook, or on any social networking site, should be all about balance, says John Smith. If your schoolwork, college work or relationships are suffering, perhaps it's time to take a break.
"How much time are you giving it?" he asks. "Is it compulsive, repetitive, persistent?" he asks.
"Are you missing out on other things? You've got to ask: am I copping out on homework or socialising?"
Irish Independent
