The Growing Monkeysphere

Baumeister’s “Beasts for Culture” discusses the three worlds that human beings live in: the physical world, the social world and the world of culture. He explores the nature and development of culture and the impact it has had on society at large. Baumeister states, “Culture is an information-based system that allows people to live together and satisfy their needs.”1 Rifkin’s discourse in “Theatrical Self In An Improvisational Society” covers the differences in the dramaturgical consciousness of Generation X and the Millennials, and the impact on society of growing up in a lifestyle fully embedded in the Internet and social networking.2

Both touch on (Rifkin more so than Baumeister) a new global culture being formed over the Internet. With more than two billion people now connected, the sizes and variety of “friends” that people now have online far outweigh that of the social connections people had even ten years ago.

This lead me to think of Dunbar’s number (or Monkeysphere), the theoretical number of people that one person can maintain social relationships with. The average lies between 100 and 250 people, but with social networking at its current height of popularity, these numbers seem to have more than doubled. On Facebook alone, anyone can now keep in regular contact with more than 500 people, checking “statuses” and “tagged” photos.

When one’s monkeysphere becomes so large and meeting face-to-face regularly is not required, people seem less concerned with social etiquette. In many cases, this “friend gathering” has turned into something of a competition, a topic that is referenced in the 2010 South Park Episode “Your have 0 Friends”. A race in popularity, which was once based in schools, has now moved online. As a result, boundaries of socially acceptable behaviour are being pushed, manipulated and even broken. Social behaviour that we would hope to never see in person is now becoming widely acceptable amongst impressionable teenagers, as their online lives take over their whole lives. When did it become acceptable to post on your Twitter page: “That awkward moment when you walk into the toilet and the person before didn't flush. >.<” I’m sorry TeenDreaming, but does anyone actually want to read this? Would you say that to someone in public? I hope not. But something makes me think that she/he would.

1. Baumeister, R. F. (2005). Beasts for Culture
2. Rifkin, J. (2009). The Theatrical Self In An Improvisational Society.