BBC RADIO 4

Today Weekdays 6-9am and Saturdays 7-9am

Page last updated at 09:02 GMT, Thursday, 4 February 2010

Can you have too many friends?

Advertisement

What is a friend? The increased use of social networking sites allows people to have as many as thousands of 'friends', while many other people would consider a friend to be someone they see every day and can count the number of friends on one hand.

Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford University and Mark Vernon, author of The Philosophy of Friendship, debate how to define a friend.

SEE ALSO

Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific