Personal Connections in the Modern World “I’m So Totally, digitally, Close to You: The Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” by a former Knight Fellow at MIT, Clive Thompson, follows the path of how technology has made us closer than ever and farthest apart at the same time. Thompson captures the reader’s attention by describing how Mark Zuckerberg changed the way Facebook worked forever. He then describes how adults who were at first skeptical about using social media got into using it on a regular basis, how social media can help you connect with people more, what the Dunbar number is and how it has changed, and how social media is ruining our lives. Thompson’s article is effective because he combines interviews from multiple people about
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Thompson explains what exactly the Dunbar number is when he describes how Robin Dunbar argued that humans have a limit to how many people he or she can know personally. Dunbar figured that the human limit of social connections would be around 150 people, and he was right, but now the number might be changing thanks to social media (588). Thompson reports about his findings from interviews with people who excessively use social media, “Many maintained that their circle of true intimates, their very close friends and family, had not become bigger” (588). While people’s deep connections with people had not grown, the number of “weak ties” they had with people grew greatly. The people that you would meet once or twice and forget about are now showing up on your News Feed and reminding you that they still exist. In order to calculate your technological Dunbar number, you add all of the people who you are friends with or follow (minus any people who are duplicates on multiple sites). It’s interesting how many of those so called “friends” you actually consider true friends. Thompson ends his article by explaining how this new growth in weak ties between people can actually turn into a bad
Thompson explains what exactly the Dunbar number is when he describes how Robin Dunbar argued that humans have a limit to how many people he or she can know personally. Dunbar figured that the human limit of social connections would be around 150 people, and he was right, but now the number might be changing thanks to social media (588). Thompson reports about his findings from interviews with people who excessively use social media, “Many maintained that their circle of true intimates, their very close friends and family, had not become bigger” (588). While people’s deep connections with people had not grown, the number of “weak ties” they had with people grew greatly. The people that you would meet once or twice and forget about are now showing up on your News Feed and reminding you that they still exist. In order to calculate your technological Dunbar number, you add all of the people who you are friends with or follow (minus any people who are duplicates on multiple sites). It’s interesting how many of those so called “friends” you actually consider true friends. Thompson ends his article by explaining how this new growth in weak ties between people can actually turn into a bad