Ask Your Question today
What do you think people's motivations for asking this question are?
How would you react to being asked this question?
Maybe to figure out if you're outgoing or not (generally, more outgoing = more friends)
Maybe to find out if you could use another friend like them
Maybe they are slightly anti-social or awkward and this is their version of a "getting to know you" question
Maybe they're trying to gauge your popularity and liked-ness-bility by how many friends you have. It's true, it's like getting an instant peer review. Some people do base their likability towards a person based on how many other people like him/her.
Or maybe they want to know if they kidnapped you how many people would notice and they'd have to deal with (the reason I'd ask... *intense eyes*)
I'd ask if they expect me to give an answer straight away. Does anyone knows exactly how many friends they have? I don't. It reminds me of Flight Of The Conchords where a weirdo asks "how many people have you met?" and expects a straight answer.
I expect they're just asking out of curiosity.
Then I'd work it out. I'll count "friends" as anyone I would definitely invite to my birthday party if we all lived in the same city. Probably somewhere between 40 and 50. Maybe 30, because I'm falling out with one group right now and I'm not sure we're going to stay friends for that much longer, which would be really sad but that's life. If you want to be less broad and say only people I'm really close to right now, probably 15 to 20.
I don't think anyone has asked me this. Except in the context of social media. Which isn't exactly an accurate count because it includes family, businesses and groups.