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Lately, I was re-reading a popular book, Sapiens: Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari, and I noticed one super-interesting idea--at least for me--about the number of possible human connections.
Sociological research has shown that the maximum 'natural' size of a group bonded by gossip is about 150 individuals. Most people can neither intimately know, nor gossip effectively about, more than 150 human beings
Now applying it in the context of modern communication methods, the number of interactions is way larger. But the magic number, 150, still seems reasonable to me for intimate interactions. Although, it's hard to validate right now--may be in future I will experiment--but I can vaguely guess that around 50 people were/are close to me--different people at different phases--in my whole 30 years of life.
Now my count is lower than the magic number, and I suspect that it is different for others with upper limit fixed (150). It could also be further dropping as with modern technology the intimate relations are replaced by the large number of fake interactions that give illusion of connectivity to the society.
This is the irony of modern-well-connected society where people expect to be known among millions without having any real interactions
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Posted at: Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:47 GMT
category: /weblog/posts