Number of Facebook friends can say a lot about your success

New Delhi, Dec 18: Let's face it, Facebook has become an indispensable tool to remain in touch with friends, family and relatives and to climb (or fall) upon the inescapable social ladder. On the social networking site, often a short, trivial exchange (e.g. "Hey, 'Yup') can seem pointless, but it's adding to your social presence on the web, as it states to all other visiting users, that this person and you are friends.Facebook has put a whole new spin to the world of friendship. The virtual friendship world now matters a lot to a lot of people and for those already in a relationship, Facebook is becoming an obsession with who comments or likes what. Now, researchers from the University of Virginia and the London Business school reveal that the number of friends you have can depend on how successful you are, and even how often you move.Researchers further say the 'perfect' number of friends actually depends on several socioeconomic factors, which vary significantly from country to country.Shigehiro Oishi, a psychology professor in the University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences, and Selin Kesebir of the London Business School conducted a study to explore the benefits of social networking strategies in two studies currently published in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.The study says that Americans adopt a broad shallow network and they prefer a large social network, which is primarily because they move around a lot. The study further says that having many friends is, however, not always viewed positively outside the United States. The study claim that in good times, people can easily maintain a broader network, but when times aren't as flush, having more friends might incur huge costs in terms of both time and resources.Oishi and Kesebir said a broad, shallow networking strategy serves good for those who live in a residentially mobile, economically favorable context, but it won't fully serve to those who live in a place where economic conditions aren't as favorable.They say in bad times having more friends would mean people spending more in terms of times of resources.They also found that having a small social network with deep ties to friends is advantageous when friends are not likely to move away and the economy is unstable. Regardless of economic conditions, having a broad social network with weak ties to friends is advantageous when friends are likely to move away.They concluded that the two studies provide clear evidence for the role of socioeconomic factors – such as residential mobility and economic security – in determining the most adaptive networking strategy.