Facebook friends aren’t always ‘real friends’

Study says Facebook friends aren’t real friends. Image INQUIRER.net

According to a new Oxford University study, it would do people well to recognize and clarify who is a “Facebook friend.”

A Popular Science report cites Prof. Robin Dunbar’s research finding that only around 14 of the average 150 Facebook friends would express genuine sympathy to a user. Furthermore, among these 150, only five could be considered as “close friends.”

Dunbar’s study indicates that age plays a significant role in the number of Facebook friends that users have. This also reflects how teenagers and adults use social media. Dunbar attributes the results to the fact that “children are less discriminating than adults in defining friendships.”

Dunbar further states that friendships have a natural decay rate in the absence of contact and will need face-to-face time to reinforce the friendships. Social media, however, may help to slow the rate of decay.

So it won’t be too much of a stretch to plan a trip with buddies every now and then. Or simply hang out and talk about life as well as other other oddities. Alfred Bayle