You can only have 150 friends ever. It has been proven !
Since I started using Steemit, I have found a new love for research. Since my Time Management post trended a few days ago, I have been trying to keep to the plan. One key thing that I noticed is that I am making a lot of notes under the researching column :).
I research a lot as I want to ensure that I can write with confidence, whilst not being a specialist on the subject. I have referred to Robin Dunbar in an earlier post as well, but then I read more about him. He is an Anthropologist, as well as an evolutionary psychologist, with a specialty in primate behaviour. While I was reading up on reputation building in the social media realm, I read something very interesting. There aren’t many people that can say they have a number named after them ... well Robin can ... Dunbar 's number.
Dunbar's number
Dunbar's number - 150 is the number of individuals with whom one person can maintain stable relationship with. He also argues that this number has not changed much throughout history. In an article in Phycology Today he explains that the theoretical number of 150 is not a homogenous group. Ito consists of 4 layers, or "Circles" which scale relative to each other by a factor of 3. The core of 5 friends - let's call them besties - and then outwards 15 friends, 50 Friends, and 150 friends. As we move outwards the number of people in the circle increases, but the emotional links with these people decreases. It actually make sense doesn’t it?
If Mr. Dunbar is correct about the 150 friends, is not really the point, maybe he is and maybe he is not. I always try to add value in the posts.
My personal use of social media.
I must say I am not really a massive Facebook fan, but it is a nice place to see how your friends from the past is doing and progressing through life. I am speaking about older friends, like school buddies, who they married?, do they have children? etc. I do not accept anyone to Facebook, only people I now. My wife will usually posts pictures to my Facebook profile from my phone, I don’t. What I might do on Facebook is use the Check In feature and the only reason I do this is that I am a very statistical person, and will probably at some point draw some graphs of where I have been for the past few years … You never know.
I am more fond of Linkedin than Facebook, as I am a Business Development Executive by profession. My main function is to sell IT solutions to businesses. LinkedIn is very useful for this and I have grown a fairly large following on LinkedIn. I will much easier accept an invite from somebody I do not know as it might mean business in the long run. I also have a lot of followers that are offering me alternative positions to my role. I get a fair amount of job offers, but I am not really somebody to move to frequently. LinkedIn for me is a business tool.
I use twitter a fair amount to promote myself and my business. I have grown a large, but not massive following. It definitely assists to promote business or get the word out when you have marketing campaigns etc. A very useful business tool.
and Steemit?
This is a very good question and too early to answer. As I mentioned in various posts, that I believe that it is a wonderful community, which will grow exponentially over time. At the moment the only focus I have is to build a good reputation as an author that covers a wide variety of topics, and that these topics are useful to the rest of the Steemit community at large. Looking at what Mr. Dunbar said, I might just use some of that information to build a community around me. So first step … Make 5 friends … Do you want to be my friend?
On a more serious note, it is not a bad idea to build communities around you. These communities will grow by up-voting each other's post and quickly push out those who does not fit into their community. You will soon find yourself in a community of Dolphins around you. It will be very useful if you can be in a community where each vote can push you up by $1 don’t you think.
It might sound far-fetched, but those days will come my friend, and I hope they never end!!
We just need to stick around, build a good reputation by writing posts that adds value to the community, make good friends and build a base of followers.
I loved @rock-sivante 's post which trended yesterday , especially the way he ended it.
You dig ?
Word :)
I now declare @jocor as one of my 5 closest friends on steemit, I got your back and I'm watching your six, steem on @jacor
@craig-grant - My main man of Steemit! Love your video's!. Been watching them religiously! Got you back as well my friend!
Yessir.
Huh so I have 150 friends to go
You've got a lot of friends here man.
Thanks man, That deserves a follow!
right back at cha
Lol ... I'll be your first friend :)
👍nice post @jacor , may I be your friend
Just followed you. :)
You will? Thank you bb
Just followed you, How's that for a start?
Yeah this is certainly true. Facebook friends are more like just people we know, then there's close acquaintances who I hang around with but wouldn't confide anything substantial in. Real friends are those who you could pour your soul out to, and those are quite few in life IMO!
Here is an example of a post that I would like to see here in Steemit. Thank you very much, @jacor! I'd say you're setting a vivid example of how to write and make friends and followers. I really like your works!
Today is my 13th day in the Steemit. And the first days the topic of money reward really excited me. Especially after Steemians gave me over 1000$ for my post. But now I'm getting more and more pleasure from communication itself. It's really a joy to read other people's thoughts, reflect them, answer and share your experience.
And it's great to constantly learn. This is the most exciting. I like to learn how to write better, how to express my thoughts and feelings better. Since I had been blogging outside the Steemit, I really like the writing itself.
Interesting fact of psychological research. All brilliant and great men kept diaries. They constantly wrote. Writing really contributes to the high level of consciousness. And a conscious life - a happy life.
Here's a visualisation of exactly the kind of 'small-world' effect you are talking about:
Each circle is a person, and a line between two circles represents a friendship. The larger the circle, the more friends someone has. Being well connected can be extremely valuable: to find out more, you can check out my post on how understanding the power of graph theory can help you to grow the Steemit network.
Thank you very much. I LOVE it. Just upvoted your older post and followed you. We'll definitely chat again.
@sunjata we meet again
Your graph proves that quantity of connections gives most to influence quality of your vote. It's a bit lopsided, no?
When I was younger I thought the more friends I have the better. Now I know it's not the quantity that counts, it's quality. I prefer having my few good friends around instead of many fake one. Life is like Steemit. You only want good friends around
Fully agree @timsaid
People will only sacrifice money for friendship while the trade-off is marginal.
Each dolphin individual in that "community" will be sacrificing several hundred thousand dollars a year by handing out upvotes to his "friends" (as I wrote in my last post) .
Most humans do not value online friendship so dearly, so I would wager instead what you will see are communities being formed among minnow users to pool upvotes, once individuals have grown to dolphin size they will exit these communities.
You might argue that they're all making money from voting on each other's material, but no material would have to be produced, and they could make much more, simply by leveraging their SP hoards.
@satire , I agree with your statement, and I have seen this many times over in my life! It is a pity that this happen but I also think it will. Only time will tell.
You are right. And #craigrant is building the strongest community here around him. I'm amazed by the enthusiasm of this guy.
its all about enjoying what you're doing, and the rep and votes will eventually catch up. especially as those communities you mentioned begin to coalesce. Once we get to a place where distinct communities within Steemit start to form, I think we'll see the true power of this idea come to fruition
Than you for the comment @prufarchy , and fully agree that it is all about enjoyment. I will easily be able to do this for a living - Steemit - I mean . Hope that we all can afford to do this at some point in our lives :)
Ps: As english is my second language I first had to look up the word -coalesce - Big word to use this time of day :) Hope to see you around.
I like that anyone with an Internet connection and a computer can afford to do this :)
Not to mention at least a computer
I hope you're right. I've made some passionate posts since I joined a week ago. So far, I feel invisible. I'm working on it. Appreciate the encouragement, and I love the level of quality I'm seeing in people's posts. I trust you're right.
Thanks for the comment @arise. I also realized that people are picking up the quality of their posts. I think we are all learning as we are moving full steem ahead!
Word