The US is SA's best Facebook friend, according to a study by Western Union.
Western Union says a league table, which visualises Facebook connections across the globe, was created using the company's Your World Facebook application.
It says the application is being used in the Network 160 Challenge, which aims to find “the world's most globally networked person on Facebook”. The company will announce the winner on 18 October, and offer him or her “an opportunity ... to use their global network as a force for good”.
Western Union argues that the league table results show “how social media is shrinking the world we live in”, with some of SA's closest Facebook friends located miles away. Gil Sperling, CTO at Popimedia, agrees that Facebook is making the world smaller, saying: “You are able to interact socially with people you may never have if it wasn't for Facebook.”
But is it real?
Sperling says Facebook has allowed users to make their social networks transparent, but points out that Facebook friendships are not the same as 'real life' ones. He says people have more Facebook friends than they have in real life.
However, he adds that Facebook now lets users categorise their connections. “Perhaps slowly your network on Facebook will start representing real-life friends, but right now it does not,” says Sperling.
He also argues that determining how connected someone is is not simple, and there are many factors to consider. “You will probably find younger people have bigger networks than older people, as more of their acquaintances are likely to be on Facebook. Facebook also doesn't represent people you may know through business, which is a better way of representing how connected you are,” he says.
Sperling anticipates that the most-connected person would be someone “in [his or her] mid- to late-20s, who has travelled quite a bit”.
According to the league table, SA's best Facebook friends include the US, the UK, India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UAE, Zimbabwe, Germany and the Netherlands, in that order.
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