I’ll never forget the first time I saw one of those well-connected tech bloggers complain about Facebook’s 5,000-friend limit. Like the rest of us, this blogger wanted his numbers to go up.
Unique visitors, comments, Facebook Likes, Twitter followers, sales, attendance, giving — we all want to get bigger. Some of us are obsessed with getting bigger to the extent that growth, rather than the work itself, becomes our main focus. Some of us are so fixated on growth that we equate flat growth on a chart with a flatline on an EKG. That’s why, in a world where the race is on to post bigger and bigger numbers of fans and followers, I’m interested in Path.
Path is a relatively new social network whose pitch you see in the image above. Path is “the smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love.” If you read that carefully, you see the contrast between Path and Facebook/Twitter. If you’re like me, Twitter and Facebook are places where you occasionally share life (or whatever) with people you don’t even know, let alone love. But what’s the harm? There are no follower/following limits on Twitter, and I’m not in danger of hitting Facebook’s limit any time soon.
Perhaps the harm, as it were, is that I’m not very open or personal on those platforms. I don’t reveal the kinds of details my close friends and family might enjoy because of the other people listening in on the conversation. And that’s where Path comes in. Rather than Facebook’s limit of 5,000 friends, which some feel is restrictive, Path’s limit is just 150. Here’s the official explanation:
We are inspired by Professor Robin Dunbar from Oxford University, whose research delves deeply into the number of trusted relationships humans can maintain throughout life. We tend to have 5 best friends, 15 good friends, 50 close friends and family, and 150 total friends. At Path, we’re building tools for you to share with the people who matter most in your life.
Interesting, huh? I admit I haven’t fully embraced Path in my day-to-day just yet, but I see the potential and I’m intrigued by the premise. It’s a social network with a point of view, and I like that. Even more, I like how that point of view has challenged me to think about events like Echo and organizations like local churches. Where should we get bigger? Where should we get smaller?
I came to realize that this Path idea — the idea of getting smaller when everything around us is getting bigger — is the same at work in one my favorite things to emerge from the era of the modern megachurch: small groups. As worship centers began accommodating hundreds upon thousands of people, many churches began concentrated efforts to connect their members in small groups. I think that diversity of scale provides a healthy balance, which leads me to believe that Path (alongside Twitter and Facebook) could prove to be a valuable tool.
Oh, and by the way, one of the interesting things about Path is that I find myself choosing ‘Ignore’ on a few friend requests because I’ve bought into the “close friends and family” ideology. Just know that before you try to connect with me on Path. Or try to join my small group.
Scott McClellan is the Editor of Echo Hub and the Director of Echo Conference. You can follow him on Twitter: @scottmcclellan.