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Curious, how many people do you need on a social network before you can find someone to talk to or before it is engaging enough for you? I certainly don't need

Curious, how many people do you need on a social network before you can find someone to talk to or before it is engaging enough for you? I certainly don't need a billion users. I think I'd be happy with 100,000 users -- what is your number? I think this is related to the question of how big of a city do you need to live in before you can find something to do and are not bored living there. I'm fine with a city of, say, 50,000-100,000. That is more than sufficient for me to find an appropriate number of likeminded friends and neighbors as well as interesting pursuits.

lich_king 8mo ago
> Curious, how many people do you need on a social network before you can find someone to talk to or before it is engaging enough for you? I don't think that's a meaningful parameter to think about? I'd say that on any social network, I have meaningful, ongoing relationship with maybe 20 people. I suspect that's the norm. But that doesn't mean you can join a social network with 20 users and get that. I mean, if it's a mailing list for friends and family, sure. But not if it's 20 randomly-selected strangers from around the world. So the critical mass to make the "random stranger" type of a social network work is much, much higher than the number of daily interactions you need to keep coming back.
- carefree-bob 8mo ago
  Yes, all you use is 20, but as the number increases the odds of you finding your 20 goes up. I'm saying in 100,000 roughly randomly selected people, I have basically a 100% chance of finding my 20. 50,000 is probably enough. By the way, if your number is not the same as mine, I am not intimating that this makes you deficient in some way. Everyone has their own number.
wolvoleo 8mo ago
Yeah and for me it should be mainly people like me. That's really what we do, we now live in a world that's too big for our minds to encompass, so we build little villages with like-minded people. Some people call that bubbles, I call it sanity. I try not to spend my time giving out about the other side though. It just gives me negative energy.

lich_king 8mo ago

> Curious, how many people do you need on a social network before you can find someone to talk to or before it is engaging enough for you? I don't think that's a meaningful parameter to think about? I'd say that on any social network, I have meaningful, ongoing relationship with maybe 20 people. I suspect that's the norm. But that doesn't mean you can join a social network with 20 users and get that. I mean, if it's a mailing list for friends and family, sure. But not if it's 20 randomly-selected strangers from around the world. So the critical mass to make the "random stranger" type of a social network work is much, much higher than the number of daily interactions you need to keep coming back.

carefree-bob 8mo ago
Yes, all you use is 20, but as the number increases the odds of you finding your 20 goes up. I'm saying in 100,000 roughly randomly selected people, I have basically a 100% chance of finding my 20. 50,000 is probably enough. By the way, if your number is not the same as mine, I am not intimating that this makes you deficient in some way. Everyone has their own number.

wolvoleo 8mo ago

Yeah and for me it should be mainly people like me. That's really what we do, we now live in a world that's too big for our minds to encompass, so we build little villages with like-minded people. Some people call that bubbles, I call it sanity. I try not to spend my time giving out about the other side though. It just gives me negative energy.