It may sound like advice from a fairy tale, but a 2010 study found that the best predictor of whether a person would make friends in social media was whether that person believed it was possible. Other predictors also popped up, for instance how much time you spend using social media.

But one of the most commonly thought of predictors, personality type, was not found to influence whether someone made friends through social media. Other studies have shown that people with more friends offline were also more likely to have more friends online. But introversion and extroversion fell by the wayside in this study. 

Whether you have tons of friends already or not, the power of believing could change your experience. Those who believed in the possibility of making new friends through social media had 52% higher odds of making new friends online. 

Tufecki, Zeynep. (2010). Who acquires friends through social media and why? “Rich get richer” versus “seek and ye shall find.”

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