So how many friends have you?

Girl A - "So how many friends have you in facebook?" .

Girl B - "close to 200, maybe".

"Oh that's a lot."- snapped A.

"Now, what am I supposed to do if i have, like 200 odd people i know...well actually, 200 and still counting!!", quipped B geelfully.

"But you're not supposed to have 200 friends on Facebook," thundered A, almost!

"Why not?" - asked B, a little ruffled.

"Coz that's uncool," said A sniggering.

"What's uncool about having 200 friends? It shows how popular i am!" shot back B, a tad vehement at that jibe.

"Tell me, do you know all 200 of them really, really well?" asked A.

"Ummm...well yes kind of!" was B's very unsure reply.

"what's that 'ummmm', suposed to mean?" asked A pointedly.

"Well, i was actually thinking about my equation with them..." spoke B rather softly now.

"What equation?", jutted in A -- "If you have so many people on that list you call 'friends', the only equation you got to have is friendship'! she explained.

"Well some of them aren't 'friends' then!"...B somehow rattled off.

I overheard this animated conversation between two sprigtly young girls, a few days back at the coffee shop; and surpisingly saw the same update on a friend's profile the next day -- 'So how many friends have you?'

If, for the past few years, Facebook told us, how, having over 300 or more friends spoke of one's immense "popularity", in defiance and spoofing the famous Dunbar Number theory almost -- a recent trend says, having less than 170/160 is the 'way to be' on FB! But why this volte-face? -- well, as the 'new trend' on FB shows, apparently our 'social network' happy, and 'virtual' crazy generation has suddenly realised, that you can't after all, have 300 'friends' in a lifetime. At least 150 of those 'friends' in that list would be, just 'acqaintances', while the rest would be scattered in the domain of 'familiar'; some definitely could be called 'strictly formal relations', and others 'seemingly polite associations', like your much hated ex-boss, for instance! So, that technically leaves room for a 'handful of friends' - 5,..6,...10...ok fine, 15.

Maybe friendship like all-else, is just as changeable, in this virtual age, as are the minute-to-minute updates on Facebook. But i'm beginning to wonder, what about the 150-odd who have suddenly been 'unfriended'on FB!