Mr Brashears found that 'modern discussion networks have decreased in size, which is consistent with other researchers' findings, but that social isolation has not become more prevalent'.

When asked to list the names of people they had discussed 'important matters' with over the previous six months, about 48 percent of participants listed one name, 18 percent listed two, and roughly 29 percent listed more than two names for these close friends.

On average, participants had 2.03 confidantes. And just over four percent of participants didn't list any names.

Female participants and those who were educated were the least likely to report no names on their confidante list.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

在这个Facebook和Twitter盛行的时代，按理说我们每人都应该有数百位朋友。

然而有研究称，事实上我们中的大多数人只有两个亲密的朋友，而25年前人均好友数量为3个。

研究人员认为并不需要为此担心。他们指出，尽管我们当中有一部分人可能会变得“更脆弱”，但很多人只是更善于判定自己能够信任的知己密友罢了。

这一数据和年轻人为了证明自己的人气争相在社交网站上加尽可能多的“好友”形成了强烈对比。

Facebook的数据显示，平均每位用户有130名“好友”，但这些“好友”中的许多人都是偶然认识的人，或根本不会在现实生活中遇见的人。

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