Egocentric online social networks: Analysis of key features and prediction of tie strength in Facebook

Arnaboldi, Valerio; Guazzini, Andrea; Passarella, Andrea

doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2013.03.003

Cited by 115 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…O n the basis of the social brain hypothesis (Byrne and Whiten, 1989;Whiten and Byrne, 1997;Dunbar, 2000;Dunbar, 2003), an explanation of social structures, which are typical for humankind, is expected to offer knowledge about human origins, such as the limitation on the number of social relationships (Dunbar, 2000;Dunbar, 2003;Hill and Dunbar, 2003;Gonçalves et al, 2011;Arnaboldi et al, 2013a) and the skewness of social relationships (Zhou et al, 2005;Hossmann et al, 2011;Arnaboldi et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2012;Song et al, 2012;Arnaboldi et al, 2013b;Fujihara and Miwa, 2014), that is, its distributions following a power law (Hossmann et al, 2011;Arnaboldi et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2012;Pachur et al, 2012;Song et al, 2012;Fujihara and Miwa, 2014). These social structures may be caused by human beings' social grooming strategies (Dunbar, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of time resources in human relationships determine social structures

Takano¹,

Fukuda²

2017

Palgrave Commun

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The number of social relationships that a single human being can possibly be involved in is limited because individuals face time constraints (that is, time costs) in constructing and maintaining social relationships; furthermore, the distribution of the strength of such relationships (as measured by frequency of social interaction) looks significantly skewed (a power law distribution), that is, a few strong relationships and many weak relationships. This skewedness suggests that the costs and benefits of bonding with others depend on the strength of the social relationships: if it involves uniform costs and benefits, the distribution would not be skewed. The bonding is known as social grooming; that is, humans strategically construct their social relationships, and thus, complex human societies should also be strategically constructed. Therefore, it is important to know their strategies for understanding human societies. Previous studies provide evidence of social grooming strategies by examining the evolution and the difference between the various social grooming methods. However, quantitative laws that are important for theoretically understanding human societies are still open to investigation. Social big data is a particularly powerful tool for finding such laws. Therefore, we analyse data from six communication systems (Twitter, a social networking site providing two types of interactions, an avatar chat, a mobile phone and a short message service). We find a simple quantitative law by which social relationships are constrained Nm a (a41); here, N is the number of social relationships and m is a mean of the strength of those relationships. The fact that deep social relationships require higher costs per relationship than shallow relationships is suggested by a41 (if the both is equal then a will be 1), because the effect of m on the constraint increases with m. For exploring why a is greater than 1, we conduct an individual-based simulation where social grooming costs are assumed to increase linearly with the strength of social relationships. Our results indicate that this model fits all data sets; that is, it displays an explanation capacity for the phenomenon. In addition, an analysis of this simulation proves our assumption about the social grooming cost increasing with the strength of social relationships as being true. Moreover, it suggests that its gradient increases the width and shallowness of these relationships. The law and its causes suggest that mankind's evolution of social grooming has enabled changing social structures, and the phenomenon is because of the constraints of the social network generation. These findings will contribute towards an explanation of the evolution of the various social grooming methods of humans and their significantly large social group.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of time resources in human relationships determine social structures

Takano¹,

Fukuda²

2017

Palgrave Commun

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“…The personalisation of SNS profiles is not only important to young people s relationship with others but is positively associated with the individual s sense of self-efficacy or personal agency (Hermann, H. & Burns, J. M. & Tachhi, 2005). Young person s sense of "ownership over the online space also enhances their sense of empowerment and accomplishment which reinforces the sense of belonging and attachment to community (V. Arnaboldi, A. Guazzini, and A. Passarella 2013). There is a demonstrated positive relationship between young people s use of social networking services and self-esteem (Boyd & Ellison, 2008).…”

Section: Analyses Of the Impact Of Social Networkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ito and Okabe (2005) use the term "ambient co-presence to explain this phenomenon: an ongoing visual access to a small-scale communication cluster (or 'community') via spontaneous and everyday images uploaded to a collaborative media space. Such a mode of 'sharing' and 'connection' does not require text-based or real-time communication and can also mitigate feelings of social isolation (V. Arnaboldi, A. Guazzini, and A. Passarella 2013).…”

Section: Analyses Of the Impact Of Social Networkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, studies have found that SNS can help young people who are sexually and gender diverse to meet people and learn from each other, creating the sense of belonging to a broader community (Jie Tang , Jimeng Sun , Chi Wang , Zi Yang, 2009). This sense of belonging and acceptance can mean that young people who may be more vulnerable to isolation -such as those with chronic illness or a disability -often remain members of an online community long after their initial impetus is gone (V. Arnaboldi, A. Guazzini, and A. Passarella 2013). .…”

Section: Analyses Of the Impact Of Social Networkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This ability to connect with others with shared values, views, needs or experiences, can assist young people experiencing marginalisation to identify potential supportive connections in their local community. Another study demonstrated how Facebook helped young people with lower levels of social skills develop friendships online that then translated offline (V. Arnaboldi, A. Guazzini, and A. Passarella 2013).…”

Section: Analyses Of the Impact Of Social Networkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analyses and Review of the Impact of Social Networking

Fetaji

Abazi

et al. 2015

MJSS

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Self‐expression and relationship formation in high relational mobility environments: A study of dual users of American and Japanese social networking sites

Takemura

Suzuki

2015

Int J Psychol

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This study proposes that self-expression motivation, an aspect of independent/individualistic psychological tendencies, aids in the formation of social relationships when social relationships are open and mobile. In societies characterised by high relational mobility (e.g., North America), which creates market-like competition in social relationships, individuals must express their uniqueness and worthiness to form new social relationships. Self-expression motivation has a relatively weak effect on relationship formation in low relational mobility societies (e.g., Japan), where social relationships are generally predetermined. This hypothesis was examined and supported through a study on dual users of two social networking sites-Facebook and Mixi (the "Facebook of Japan"). As expected, relational mobility was higher on Facebook than on Mixi. Moreover, the association between self-expression motivation and the number of new friends met on Facebook/Mixi was more positive for Facebook than it was for Mixi. The social functionality of independent tendencies is then discussed.

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Egocentric online social networks: Analysis of key features and prediction of tie strength in Facebook

Cited by 115 publications

References 51 publications

Limitations of time resources in human relationships determine social structures

Limitations of time resources in human relationships determine social structures

Analyses and Review of the Impact of Social Networking

Self‐expression and relationship formation in high relational mobility environments: A study of dual users of American and Japanese social networking sites

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