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How Many Friends Do You Have? Not As Many As Me! Posted: 06 Jan 2009 11:47 AM PST This afternoon I was reading an article by Julian Sanchez which describes the scene yesterday as Republicans debated the future Republican National Committee Chair. One of the most memorable segments of the debate is highlighted by the Washington Post: “We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today,” Duncan ventured. “Let me just say that I have 4,000 friends on Facebook,” contributed Blackwell, putting his hand on Dawson’s and Anuzis’s knees. “That’s probably more than these two guys put together, but who’s counting, you know?” Acknowledged Saltsman: “I’m not sure all of us combined Twitter as much as Saul.” Anuzis claimed he had “somewhere between 2- and 3,000″ Facebook friends, which prompted Blackwell to remind the audience that he has 4,000 friends on the social networking site by waving four fingers behind Anuzis’s head. What was interesting is how some of the leading members of the Republican party could not help but exchange in a friendly debate over who has the most friends on Facebook and Twitter. It’s amazing the power that the number of our friends in social networks has in the general perception of our social status. Many of the top Facebook users boast proudly of their “whale” status (users with 5,000 friends on Facebook are also called “whales”) and I regularly find myself engaged in a conversation about the number of friends I have on Facebook. Even my mother discusses it and it almost sounds like a sign of weakness when she has says that she has has 50 friends on the site. I regularly have conversations over instant message during which the number of friends each user has is brought up. This digital status drives even the most mature adults to act like children as they try to find compete with others for more friends. There are many other digital measures of social standing that we use on a regular basis. For example bloggers tend to count the number of RSS subscribers they have while others compare the number of unread emails in their inbox. Categorizing, classifying, and organizing groups into lists is a classic strategy used by media companies to gain attention. Just take a look at the magazine stand at any local marketplace. Cosmopolitan magazine uses this strategy religiously on every single cover. We love grouping others and then ranking them and the number of our social network connections is just one public form of ranking. The number of social network friends has typically been a competitive focus among the younger generations but after reading the Washington Post article, it’s clear how ubiquitous social networking has become. One thing that is also clear is that just because the older generations are on the sites doesn’t mean they are familiar with the terminology. Hence Duncan’s statement “We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering.” So how many friends do you have? Do you find yourself engaging in conversation regularly about the number of friends you have on Facebook or other sites?

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