Download Squad

You know those 15,274 friends you have on Facebook, MySpace and other social networks? We know you're going to find this hard to believe. But they're not actually your friends. Well, not close friends anyway. We know, it's shocking, but it turns out that if you asked 15,268 of them if you could borrow a car, odds are they'd say no.

Well, while that may have seemed obvious to most of us, that didn't stop British psychologist Will Reader from conducting research on the topic. And he found that you probably have about the same number of close friends online as you do off. And 90 percent of your online friends will be people you've met in real life.

Where social networks excel is at making it easy to keep in touch with old friends and colleagues with whom you might otherwise lose touch. You might not send your casual acquaintance from 7th grade an email very often. But you might leave a message on his Facebook wall.

Reader found that face to face communication is essential in establishing trust in relationships. So even if you do make friends through social networks, often through friends of friends, you're only likely to become "close" friends if you meet in real life.

Keep in mind, this research relates to social networks. Reader's making no claims that you can't make good friends with people you meet online. He's just saying that it's unlikely you'll do it by frequenting MySpace.