My first reaction was that this discussion focuses too much on sitting on your own, or inviting someone else from your group to move elsewhere. After all, large groups can also shrink when people leave a large group and go join a smaller group.
But on second thought, forming new groups is necessary, otherwise the number of groups will just keep decreasing and so they eventually will end up large. So in fact it seems very important that you can either split off subgroups or else go sit on your own.
I think in some spaces it is much easier for large groups to fission into small groups and then drift to different spaces. This might be an important consideration for party spaces / layouts.
Other random frictions:
Leaving a group signals that you don’t enjoy the conversation or people in it, so might happen too rarely.
Small groups are harder to leave and so riskier to join or start.
I also thought that at first, and wanted to focus on why people join groups that are already large. But yeah, lack of very small groups to join would entirely explain that. Leaving a group signaling not liking the conversation seems like a big factor from my perspective, but I’d guess I’m unusually bothered by that.
Another random friction:
If you just sit alone, you don’t get to choose the second person who joins you. I think a thing people often do rather than sitting alone is wander alone, and grab someone else also wandering, or have plausible deniability that they might be actually walking somewhere, if they want to avoid being grabbed. This means both parties get some choice.
My first reaction was that this discussion focuses too much on sitting on your own, or inviting someone else from your group to move elsewhere. After all, large groups can also shrink when people leave a large group and go join a smaller group.
But on second thought, forming new groups is necessary, otherwise the number of groups will just keep decreasing and so they eventually will end up large. So in fact it seems very important that you can either split off subgroups or else go sit on your own.
I think in some spaces it is much easier for large groups to fission into small groups and then drift to different spaces. This might be an important consideration for party spaces / layouts.
Other random frictions:
Leaving a group signals that you don’t enjoy the conversation or people in it, so might happen too rarely.
Small groups are harder to leave and so riskier to join or start.
I also thought that at first, and wanted to focus on why people join groups that are already large. But yeah, lack of very small groups to join would entirely explain that. Leaving a group signaling not liking the conversation seems like a big factor from my perspective, but I’d guess I’m unusually bothered by that.
Another random friction:
If you just sit alone, you don’t get to choose the second person who joins you. I think a thing people often do rather than sitting alone is wander alone, and grab someone else also wandering, or have plausible deniability that they might be actually walking somewhere, if they want to avoid being grabbed. This means both parties get some choice.