BY HANNAH PURKEY

In print | Published January 20, 2011

A recent OpEd in the New York Times by Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford, argues against the widespread belief that social media has allowed us to have more friends than would have otherwise been possible.

Although Facebook and the Internet in general allow individuals to reach many more people in a limited time, we all have an innate cognitive limit that restricts the number of friends we can have that is not overcome by access to better technology, according to Dunbar. Instead of creating new friends online, we simply form an online group of friends that are disconnected in the offline world — what he refers to as the electronic village.

He expands on this in his book, How Many Friends Does One Person Need, and puts a finite number on the people we can truly have a relationship with, no matter the number of “friends” one has on Facebook. This number, called Dunbar’s number, is only 150. Dunbar best defines this group as the people whom, if you ran into them at the airport lounge at 3 a.m., you would feel comfortable, or even obliged, to say hi and have a conversation with. “You wouldn’t need to introduce yourself because they would know where you stood in their social world, and you would know where they stood in yours,” she wrote.

You are probably asking yourself right about now what all this has to do with sports. I’m getting there; don’t worry. My immediate response after reading the OpEd piece was one of deep, intellectual thought: I tried to compile a list of what my 150 people would look like.

However, I ran into some difficulties even fitting in all of the people I interact with on a daily basis. After listing the entirety of the current San Jose Sharks and San Francisco Giants rosters, there was barely enough room for all of my family members.

It may seem ridiculous to include two entire sports teams on a list of people I call “friends,” but the truth is sports allow you to defy the limitations of Dunbar’s number, and modern technology is a large part of why. These days, you can find out everything about your favorite players with a click of a mouse, from how Eric Staal feels about picking his brother in the All-Star draft to Keith Ballard’s failed prank attempts in the Canucks’ locker room. When you spend all of your free time watching them on the ice and reading about them off the ice, professional athletes often can feel closer than the person sitting next to you in class.

Some may question whether the bond between fan and athlete would actually constitute a “friendship,” but for the faithful, professional athletes often fulfill all the same duties of a friend. They stick with you through good times and bad, cheer you up when you’re sad and provide their fair share of good gossip and entertainment. And the relationship is a two-way street. If you don’t believe me, see how long a sports franchise can last without fans.

Sure, maybe players can’t name every one of us like we can them, but NHL teams are well aware of the importance of their team’s loyal followers, and show it every chance they get. Take the San Jose Sharks for example. Long-time season ticket holders for the Sharks actually have their tickets personally delivered by Sharks players at the beginning of the season.

But sports not only create connections between fans and players, but also with other fans. Fans of the same sports team are allied, even if they have never met each other. They share a common history of the pain of loss and the sweetness of success, and that links them in a way akin to friendship. The fan-to-fan connection can even meet Dunbar’s 3 a.m. airport definition. If I walked into an airport lounge and saw someone wearing Sharks or Giants paraphernalia, I wouldn’t be embarrassed to go over and say hi. Instead of Dunbar’s “How are you? Haven’t seen you in ages!” it would be “Why is that when one Bay Area team does well, the others have to have complete breakdowns? It’s like we always have to have at least a little torture!” It’s practically the same thing.

Just like Dunbar says is true of our 150 friends, I would be happy to lend a fellow fan a “fiver” if asked or buy them a beer, because, without even having a single conversation, I know they share a love of Joe Thornton and a hatred of all things associated with the Anaheim Ducks. If friendship is based on similar interests, I can’t imagine anything more important than a shared interest in booing Ducks players.

Sports give you an instant network of friends that are not accounted for in Dunbar’s number. I may not be able to tell you exactly who they are, but we would certainly have more to talk about in an airport lounge than I would with that girl that sat two rows ahead of me throughout high school.

Referenced Links:
The OpEd piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinion/26dunbar.html
Eric Staal on his brother:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/What-does-Team-Staal-vs-Team-Lidstrom-mean-for-?urn=nhl-309090
Keith Ballard prank:
http://passittobulis.blogspot.com/2011/01/canucks-need-more-creative-pranks.html
Sharks hand delivering tickets:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/San-Jose-Sharks-House-Calls-56719807.html

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