One Hundred Fifty

A few days ago, I came across this article that states humans are limited to maintaining about 150 active friendships. The article relates this to social networking sites, especially Twitter.

I have been thinking about all this a bit over the past days, and I largely agree from my own observations. When I first started using Twitter, I only followed those who I considered friends. I distinctly remember when I started branching out and following tastemakers and news sources, I shot up over 150, and then sort of became overloaded.

Right now I follow 245 accounts. Now, I know a fair amount are accounts for apps I use that infrequently post news regarding those apps, so those don't factor into the "active friendship" limit. I could honestly filter some of these into lists, as you can add accounts to lists without following them. Others are simply writers I follow, and definitely want to know what they say, but also aren't an "active friendship", even though I may have a short back and forth with them.

Now, I do happen to follow quite a few people in my city. This is where I get a little overwhelmed once this category reaches around 150 people. Every once in a while, I will go prune out some folks who I seldom converse with, who are more acquaintance than friend. Sadly, some folks take that extremely personally, and I wish they wouldn't. A follow does not equal friendship. There are rare gems where a follow does equal friendship.

All said, I think there is some truth to the 150 rule.