There are two interesting bits of news going on this week that should be of interest to bloggers and perhaps anyone who uses social networking. The first article was a bit of academic type news that said that studies have shown that humans can really only handle a social network of about 200 people. Now the study wasn’t focusing on Twitter or Facebook but rather real live interactions. And the studies showed that no matter how social we think we are, our brains can really only keep track of about 200 family and friends. After that we suffer from overload and can’t really remember details about the people we think we know. I’ve experienced this personally on Twitter and Facebook. As an author I have lots of connections but often find myself staring at a name and trying to remember how I know them. Or if I really know them.
Which brings up the other bit of news. It seems that some people are surprised that Representative Anthony Weiner (of Weinergate — the current political scandal where a photo of bulging briefs was sent from Weiner’s twitter account) doesn’t know all his followers. I’m going to assum that these shocked folks don’t know much about Twitter, social media or the public outreach a politician needs to have. But Weiner has science on his side. If we really can’t keep track of more than 200 friends, then any public official can’t be expected to personally know the thousands who might be interested in what he has to say.
How many social networking contacts do you have and what tools do you use to keep track of them? I’ll be talking about that more in future blog posts.