How Many People Can You Possibly Know?

Last time I was on Facebook it was about 150, and I only friend people I’ve met in real life or had a very interesting conversation with online. I have about 30 cousins but I only stay in touch with about three. The only people I actually let know what is going on are my family and a couple of people I’ve known for decades.

I’ve interacted with hundreds of thousands of people due to work and travel though. A lot of my old friends have passed away or moved on.

I know thousands but that 150 number is 149 more than I can handle,

just look at Facebook! most ppl who Only let Actual friends THEY KNOW have About 150~ friends..
if they have like 10,000 they LET ANYONE be their friend on FB

not to mention its the size for various communities they split in half at 150*

well probably MEET up to a Million ppl through a 80year life!?
but never see them again*
like sat in a line together in a big city (SF, NY, NO, LV, LA etc)
but in larger groups (like 1k+)
it risks more people being outside the majority making decisions and being so different than a ruling group to cause internal conflict* like the amish vs black inner urban to white ppl in rich neighborhoods or white ppl in coal mining areas and or something religious in nature like amish vs Wiccans or Satanists!
all would be One voting group in Pennsylvania.. it makes it so there can be proportional groups in conflict in Every way... but Socially these groups historically keep to themselves.. but elections may be swayed by some aspects we dont see, like one candidate who promised something Specific and beneficial that gets an election swayed an opposite direction (like aid programs) so that several groups that dont agree on the face issues but smaller concerns to get a majority vote..

but smaller groups keep to themselves and set group sizes based on whether there are more than one person or persons for any one job like mayor priest head of social groups, like the amish, which are a good anthropological case study in group sizes/("Dunbar's number") for this specific concept of appropriate group size*

150? I am having a hard time interacting 30 and that includes friends and family

It is funny to hear about Facebookers claiming they have like 4000 friends ...

Would it depend on a person’s personality? My Ex is an extreme introvert…. She doesn’t care or want to know 150 people. I on the other hand an an extreme extrovert, on my facebook profile I have 725 friends, and I do know each of them to some degree… often interacting in real life….

How many do I know, probably thousands because I have trouble forgetting details, and moved multiple times when I was a kid.

How many do I speak with on a regular basis (let's say weekly)? Maybe a dozen on average during work hours, two outside of work hours. I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people...

At best... one.

150, that's an interesting number. When I used to teach high school, I had about 150 students each year. It would take me a few weeks just to get to know their names, let alone who they were as students. Yes I believe that would be about the max for most people. Let's say that they were in a community with me and I did not know anyone else. Thinking about this, probably 150 to 200 people would be the maximum number that I could get to know. But I think 200 would be pushing it.

I need to find another 140 people.

I'm curious what percentage of the entire U.S. population I've seen at random during the year while walking through cities & airports?

For example while at the crowded Denver Airport this summer waiting for our flight, I must have seen 500 distinct people walking past per minute = 60,000 people for a 2 hour layover. If I was stuck in the airport for a 10 hour layover, that's 600,000 people - about 1 out of every 550 people in the country. Actually a significant fraction for a single day.

Honestly sounds about right give or take. Hopefully the tribal instinct/desire for quality over quantity of relationships isn't lost as we try to be a global species.

We seem to instinctively divide ourselves into arbitrary groups. Family, color, political affiliation, sports team, State, College, High School, country of origin, language, car you drive...
Even during the filming of "Planet of the Apes", regardless of who was in the suit, the different groups of "apes" did not socialize with each other. The chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans formed their own groups.
Sill animals we are...

I have 3 relationships I can handle, so my brain size is 50 times lower than usual?

Completely Agree. I think moving to a community with 150 people would be nice.

You can read the comment section on pretty much every video and you will see that humans are in fact not evolved enough to handle the internet

i don't know 10 people let alone 150

Regularly interacting with hundreds, but enjoing having around about hundred.

I know my family, some of them…

🤔... This many! 🖐✌️

I know about a dozen people right now. That's not my limit but that's comfortable at my age, 71. When I was working I probably knew maybe 30 with the odd coming and going and that was definitely not comfortable. I didn't like some of those people, and I had to answer to some. I no longer have to answer to anyone except myself.

I can handle about 5

I think that I evolved to be able to handle 17 people. More then that and my fight or flight kicks in. Yes, I'm that grumpy guy with permanent RBF in the grocery store.

Is it possible that someone's Dunbar number is 1/100th of other people's Dunbar number. I don't think I can tolerate anyone but myself.

Not enough

I don't even want to try to know more than ten, including my co-workers. Well, I may have 35 kids in a classroom, which as a nomad teacher means around 170 - but small kids don't count: they are not fully humans but more like intelligent animals.

On the positive side, I have about a 90 percent reserve left

So they're basically consolidating all the wealth into the hands of 150 people. Voila! Utopia!

Ok

sounds like evopsych nonsense 2 me

150? Are you F ing kidding? 50 max. Personally I don't care for anything more than 12.

Good luck getting me to handle 20

I can kind of handle 15 relationships if I rarely see 10 of them. Go figure, the number of people in my family.

Okay, so I'm stuck; can you really know someone? I have about 6 acquaintances.

As little as possible

About 200 but yes it splinters. Definitely

Only about 25 are close

150 is ten times more than I can handle

i just remember the last 30 i interected in someway.. that is the maximum capacity my brain has...

My Dunbar Number is like 15, tops.

I hope to eventually double my relationships. It would nice to have two.

What does it mean to know someone? I question if someone really knows me. It also seems like we have different definitions on what love is and what a friend is, so we probably think differently of knowing someone too. I personally think we can handle way more people than 150, with handle I mean that you recognize someone and know some things about the person.

I made wedding invitations recently so I can answer this one, I know 67 humans/important ones. Assuming I’m not forgetting another grandma

Joe the type a dude....

The max amount of people i can stay in touch everyday day is 2 and already they are my parents.

The herd theory is probably correct. Hunting and gathering came before relationshipping.

No psycho coming to kill me right?

You can bet Neanderthal DNA limits that 150 even further. It is far superior to other human DNA in many ways...

A typical military unit, an army company, can be up to 300 people. And we have a ride or die relationship with all members.

As someone who grew up in a city and now lives in a very rural area in Ireland I'm surprised how may I actually know now.
I knew a lot less in the city. Perhaps it all depends on how you interact with others.