Following Marilyn’s post about why she uses Facebook, check out this lengthy article from The New York Times Magazine from Friday. It tells some great stories about how folks are using social networks, but also digs into some anthropological subjects, too. Like can humans actually maintain more than 150 friends at any given time? Is there enough time in the day to keep tabs on 400 Twitter feeds? And maybe the biggest one, WHY would anyone care to amass a huge circle of loosely connected “friends”?  One reason is the power of collective know how:

“Laura Fitton, a social-media consultant who has become a minor celebrity on Twitter — she has more than 5,300 followers — recently discovered to her horror that her accountant had made an error in filing last year’s taxes. She went to Twitter, wrote a tiny note explaining her problem, and within 10 minutes her online audience had provided leads to lawyers and better accountants. Fritton joked to me that she no longer buys anything worth more than $50 without quickly checking it with her Twitter network.”

We’ve been hearing it for years, right? It’s all about who you know. With social networking you can be super connected without leaving your cube.