Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites popular among college students boast users who claim hundreds of online friends. But new research shows the count of “real friends” — true intimates — is about five.
Researchers at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Liverpool, both in Britain, have been conducting surveys of social networking denizens. They report that although such people claim 150 or 200 online friends (depending on the survey), they say they but have five core friends.
It’s interesting that five is the same number claimed by people not involved in online networks. —Josh Fischman
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