This network shows that only the highly connected students like Sue and Alice have more friends than their friends do -the overwhelming majority of the rest of us do not, and that’s why the experience the Friendship Paradox firsthand. The number beside each name is her number of friends, and the number in parentheses beside each name is the mean number of friends of her friends. The figure below (adapted from Feld’s paper) shows an example of a small friendship network from a high school. Simply put it says: “your friends have, statistically speaking, more friends than you do.” It’s a consequence of the mathematical properties of the social networks in which we live.

It’s a manifestation of the ‘ Friendship Paradox’, a phenomenon first observed by the sociologist Scott L Feld in 1991. If it’s any consolation, they do, and it’s not your fault. Do you ever feel that most of your friends are more socially connected than you? Do they seem to learn about all the cool new hangouts - bars, cafes, pop-up shops, etc - before you do?

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