The Online and Offline Social Disconnect

I had a recent post on friendship, then a few casting a cat with a dog [Also read: Gordon Gekko's Social Graph] and a grocery store clerk in social networks, with my personal thoughts on making friends and comparing Web 2.0 with offline and online behavior.

Here are a couple of studies I found through Valleywag that are very relevant and bring out the paradox in the two worlds or maybe more appropriately, first and second life:

• England's Sheffield Hallam University's Dr. Will Reader studies whether social networks, with the aid of "add friend", helps in making friends.
  

The article states "The advent of online social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook is changing the average number of friends people have, with some users befriending literally thousands of others, Dr Will Reader of Sheffield Hallam University told the BA Festival of Science on Monday."

Then he goes on to find out that, not surprisingly:"Some 90 per cent of the online friends rated as ‘close’ have been met face-to-face". But wait, there is more - more disconnect with the online and offline friends:
The article refers to Dunbar's Number, also referred to by Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, The Tipping Point "that the average person has a social network of around 150 friends, ranging from very close friends to casual acquaintances.

The irony of all this is to consider a study as recent as in 2006, that brings out the decline in friendship.

"The study states that 25% of Americans have no close confidants, and that the average total number of confidants per person has dropped to 2."

• The second reference was to a Times of London article about the "Facebook Suicide". More importantly though, is this quote, which is very relevant:

"Patricia Rogers, a counsellor and fellow of the BACP, even worries that the feelings that lead to Facebook suicide could trigger the loneliness [ref: slippery slope of loneliness in prior post here] and lack of self-esteem felt by people who really do take their own lives.
"It could be incredibly damaging for the ego to realise that you haven't got as many friends as you thought you had, or that those friends aren't particularly meaningful," she says"
 
Imagine: Social is Social Does [not social "adds"]