While you might have hundreds of friends on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, how many people do you really rely on in an emergency?
According to the latest research, it seems you can count the number of real friends you have on one hand – with most people counting on just four real-life/ Facebook friends for a shoulder to cry on.
Oxford psychologist Robin Dunbar analysed 3,375 Facebook users in the UK, asking them how many of their online circle they counted as real friends they can count on when suffering an emotional crisis.
While the average user has roughly 150 Facebook friends on average, respondents claim they rely on just four friends when experiencing a tough time.
The number stretches to 14 connections if they’re looking for sympathy.
So, how are we whittling down our friendship numbers in their hundreds?
Explaining his results, Dunbar told
The Huffington Post:
“Creating friendships is very expensive in terms of time: to keep a friendship you have to invest a lot of time in the person, otherwise the friendship will inexorably decline in quality.”
So we guess it really is quality not quantity.
Let’s just hope your four friends pick you too.
