Konnikova introduces the idea of the Dunbar number and “the rule of three” in the first page to set up her point that people have groups of friends or acquaintances that we see in person. She further drives this point home when she talks about how army regiments and things from hundreds of years ago, before Dunbar’s research, also support his findings. This sets up the comments she makes about her concern for social media and how it’ll affect human social bonds in the future. She observes that online friendships make take up places in our social circles even if we can’t be with them physically; this being said she’s worried it could have adverse affects on humans moving forward.
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