The average Facebook user has 245 friends. But the average friend on Facebook has 359 friends.

So says the latest study by the Pew Center’s Internet and American Life Project. But how could it be true that your friends, on average, are more popular than you?

It’s just the digital reflection of what’s known to sociologists as the “friendship paradox.” In 1991, sociologist Scott Feld found that, generally speaking, any person’s friends tend to be more popular than they are. The reason, he said, is fairly simple: people are more likely to be friends with someone who has more friends than someone who has fewer friends.

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