Social networking sites do not enable more friends

An Economist article (http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13176775) from a couple of weeks ago highlighted something about Facebook and other social networking sites that I believe is quite true: these sites are primarily for keeping in touch with acquaintances and have no effect on the actual number of close friends. While the number of "friends" on Facebook averages around 120 the actual number of close friends with whom people have frequent conversations is between 6-8. What does this actually mean? First, as I pointed out earlier social networking sites are primarily for keeping in touch with acquiaintances. Second, is that most social networking sites inaccurately use the word friend. A lot of the people who are listed as my friends are really more acquiantances. Very few people on my Facebook friend list would I go if I had serious problems. This isn't to say that I don't get along with people on my friend list or have something against them. We just aren't close friends - and that's okay. A lot of people have gotten fixated on the idea of having lots of friends for absolutely no reason. I think in a lot of cases people have lots of friends on Facebook either because they aren't very selective of who they consider friends or acquiantances or they have low self esteem and need to see that they have lots of friends to make themselves feel better.