The world we live in today is fast becoming a smaller place to live in. Literally, and even otherwise. I would personally say Facebook and its ‘likes‘ have performed their part of damage pretty well. The figures of social networking addicts is ever increasing exponentially, and in blinding pace too. Everyone seems to know everyone else around them and they all seem to be in the friends list of each others. So much of productivity-killing, human-networking activity taking the norm is in a way good. It is what manages to keep us well distracted from becoming boring-to-be-with workaholics, does it not? Whatever the reason for drooping over Facebook be, it ever-unfailingly sells well.
Someone once cynically said, “Dear Facebook, I’ve added all the people you suggested for a friend. Who are they, by the way?”. Insane world. Human networks, mechanized. What else remains? I am in no way against the mighty social network, if that is what runs in your mind right now. Nor am I blabbering hopelessly because I am single. As a matter of fact, I am more into it than I know I am. What the pathetic part I am talking about is that we readily post birthday wishes on “The Wall”, but fail to wish the person, in person, even if he is sitting right next to you at office, staring at you with all his might, wondering, “Why so?”.
Dunbar’s number:
For those of you who are not so familiar with this terminology, it is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people whom one can maintain stable social relationships with. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. The commonly cited approximation according to Wikipedia is 150, but no precise value has ever been quoted. It is because socializing knows no bounds; making new friends is never too much. If this has got anything at all to do with soft-skills, it is the human networking part of it; carrying out yourself in the presence of others; delivering the goods and selling yourself the way you deserve.
Talking about Dunbar’s Number paves way to another concept truly worth knowing: “Six degrees of separation“. No friend of a friend can be more than six steps away. It is best illustrated by the image below.
It signifies the idea that everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people, in six steps or fewer.
It is a commonly misunderstood nowadays that the number of friends on your contacts list, who were added for the moment, matters most. It is what most of us, even if not all of us, do; add people as friends who we’ve never known, for the sake of a long list. It is not at all wrong in getting to know newer people each day, but it is really high time we built strong links and connections even if a few, rather than relying on a ton of droopy ones. Get real, people. Fake relationships never make it. Make friends, for long years of togetherness. Lots. Genuine ones. Beyond Facebook, beyond Twitter, whatever.
Spellbinder
Editorial Team
GSG
Editorial Team
GSG
Tête à Tête