Keeping your list of Facebook friends intact, particularly those you do not often keep in contact with, is likely to furnish you with more information and keep your wit polished.
This is according to a recent study by Facebook's data team. The study showed that distant contacts are primarily responsible for spreading data on the social network. While we might trust the personal opinions of our closest friends the most, says the data team, they are fewer in number than those we do not know well. “Factual information, shared in links and other content, spreads through distant contacts.”
Facebook data scientist Eytan Bakshy says the information consumed and shared on Facebook is far more diverse in nature than conventional wisdom might suggest. “We are exposed to and spread more information from our distant contacts than our close friends. Since these distant contacts tend to be different from us, the bulk of information we consume and share comes from people with different perspectives.”
Jackie Cohen, of AllFacebook, the social network's top resource, says this finding dispels the opinion that social networks are simply an echo chamber where people are only exposed to those who share the same opinions.
“Our work is among the first to rigorously quantify influence at a mass scale, and shows that online social networks can serve as an important medium for sharing new perspectives, products and world events,” says Cohen.
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