Attention on Weak Ties in Social and Communication Networks

Granovetter's weak tie theory of social networks is built around two central hypotheses. The first states that strong social ties carry the large majority of interaction events; the second maintains that weak social ties, although less active, are often relevant for the exchange of especially important information (e.g., about potential new jobs in Granovetter's work). While several empirical studies have provided support for the first hypothesis, the second has been the object of far less scrutiny. A possible reason is that it involves notions relative to the nature and importance of the information that are hard to quantify and measure, especially in large scale studies. Here, we search for empirical validation of both Granovetter's hypotheses. We find clear empirical support for the first. We also provide empirical evidence and a quantitative interpretation for the second. We show that attention, measured as the fraction of interactions devoted to a particular social connection, is high on weak ties --- possibly reflecting the postulated informational purposes of such ties --- but also on very strong ties. Data from online social media and mobile communication reveal network-dependent mixtures of these two effects on the basis of a platform's typical usage. Our results establish a clear relationships between attention, importance, and strength of social links, and could lead to improved algorithms to prioritize social media content

Information spreading during emergencies and anomalous events

The most critical time for information to spread is in the aftermath of a serious emergency, crisis, or disaster. Individuals affected by such situations can now turn to an array of communication channels, from mobile phone calls and text messages to social media posts, when alerting social ties. These channels drastically improve the speed of information in a time-sensitive event, and provide extant records of human dynamics during and afterward the event. Retrospective analysis of such anomalous events provides researchers with a class of "found experiments" that may be used to better understand social spreading. In this chapter, we study information spreading due to a number of emergency events, including the Boston Marathon Bombing and a plane crash at a western European airport. We also contrast the different information which may be gleaned by social media data compared with mobile phone data and we estimate the rate of anomalous events in a mobile phone dataset using a proposed anomaly detection method.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure

On Social Networks and Social Protest: Understanding the Organizational Embeddedness of Large-Scale Protest Events

How do large-scale protest events differ across nation-states? Do social networks play different roles in different places and, if so, how do they matter? This paper compares the roles that social networks play in mobilizing participants in large-scale domestic protest. Comparing two relatively recent events in the United States and France, I find that different types of social ties did not play the same role in each country. Although personal and organizational ties played almost equal roles in mobilizing participants at the protest-event during the Republican National Convention in 2004, organizational ties played a much more significant role in mobilizing participants to protest the Contrat Première Embauche (CPE) in France in 2006. In addition, participants in these two protest events reported being involved in dissimilar types of organizations at varying levels, which may help to explain the differential outcomes of these two protests

On the Role of Social Identity and Cohesion in Characterizing Online Social Communities

Two prevailing theories for explaining social group or community structure are cohesion and identity. The social cohesion approach posits that social groups arise out of an aggregation of individuals that have mutual interpersonal attraction as they share common characteristics. These characteristics can range from common interests to kinship ties and from social values to ethnic backgrounds. In contrast, the social identity approach posits that an individual is likely to join a group based on an intrinsic self-evaluation at a cognitive or perceptual level. In other words group members typically share an awareness of a common category membership. In this work we seek to understand the role of these two contrasting theories in explaining the behavior and stability of social communities in Twitter. A specific focal point of our work is to understand the role of these theories in disparate contexts ranging from disaster response to socio-political activism. We extract social identity and social cohesion features-of-interest for large scale datasets of five real-world events and examine the effectiveness of such features in capturing behavioral characteristics and the stability of groups. We also propose a novel measure of social group sustainability based on the divergence in group discussion. Our main findings are: 1) Sharing of social identities (especially physical location) among group members has a positive impact on group sustainability, 2) Structural cohesion (represented by high group density and low average shortest path length) is a strong indicator of group sustainability, and 3) Event characteristics play a role in shaping group sustainability, as social groups in transient events behave differently from groups in events that last longer

Associative nature of event participation dynamics: a network theory approach

The affiliation with various social groups can be a critical factor when it comes to quality of life of each individual, making such groups an essential element of every society. The group dynamics, longevity and effectiveness strongly depend on group's ability to attract new members and keep them engaged in group activities. It was shown that high heterogeneity of scientist's engagement in conference activities of the specific scientific community depends on the balance between the numbers of previous attendances and non-attendances and is directly related to scientist's association with that community. Here we show that the same holds for leisure groups of the Meetup website and further quantify individual members' association with the group. We examine how structure of personal social networks is evolving with the event attendance. Our results show that member's increasing engagement in the group activities is primarily associated with the strengthening of already existing ties and increase in the bonding social capital. We also show that Meetup social networks mostly grow trough big events, while small events contribute to the groups cohesiveness.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figs + Supporting information 7 pages, 8 fig

Social features of online networks: the strength of intermediary ties in online social media

An increasing fraction of today social interactions occur using online social media as communication channels. Recent worldwide events, such as social movements in Spain or revolts in the Middle East, highlight their capacity to boost people coordination. Online networks display in general a rich internal structure where users can choose among different types and intensity of interactions. Despite of this, there are still open questions regarding the social value of online interactions. For example, the existence of users with millions of online friends sheds doubts on the relevance of these relations. In this work, we focus on Twitter, one of the most popular online social networks, and find that the network formed by the basic type of connections is organized in groups. The activity of the users conforms to the landscape determined by such groups. Furthermore, Twitter's distinction between different types of interactions allows us to establish a parallelism between online and offline social networks: personal interactions are more likely to occur on internal links to the groups (the weakness of strong ties), events transmitting new information go preferentially through links connecting different groups (the strength of weak ties) or even more through links connecting to users belonging to several groups that act as brokers (the strength of intermediary ties).Comment: 14 pages, 18 figure

The Ripple Effect: Social Network Dynamics, Social Location, and Strategies of Interaction in Mental Illness Careers

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, Sociology, 2008Social networks are dynamic in nature, characterized by ebbs and flows in the level and quality of interaction that correspond to important changes in the lives of individuals. Disruptive events and transitions have been theorized to restrict access to existing network ties and provide opportunities for new associations and alter network structure, altering network structure, function, and content in meaningful ways. The main objective of this research is to capture the interplay between the dramatically changing circumstances in individuals' lives, the activation of social resources, and the evolution of networks. Plainly, the central question is 'how and why do social networks evolve in response to disruption and uncertainty?' This research is fundamentally about how crisis requires people to rethink and respond to changes in their social interaction patterns, and reorganize personal social networks challenged by escalating needs, changes in social location, and the stigma attached to mental illness. Using the Indianapolis Network Mental Health Study (INMHS), I follow the social network experiences of 171 "first-timers," that is, individuals making their first major contact with the largest public and private treatment centers in the city. Data reveal that crisis reverberates through the social network, initiating significant changes in network size, functionality, and level of membership turnover. When we experience crisis, support needs increase, in turn shaping interactions in ways that have important implications for the stability of social networks. Moreover, crisis in one life domain tends to lead to disruptive transitions in other domains, as well. Seldom considered, but of great consequence for "first-timers," are changes in social structural location, including residential and relationship instability, jeopardize existing ties and exacerbate the level of disruption in social ties. Network disruption then affects how networks function, as new social ties do not easily replace longstanding friends and family. In short, traumatic events, like illness, in the lives of individuals set into motion a ripple effect that has pervasive consequences for social life. In sum, this research addresses the classic sociological tension between structure and agency. That is, it illustrates that individuals are not unobtrusive observers of social network instability or passive recipients of network resources. Rather, individuals early in their experiences with mental health treatment are often active and occasionally strategic agents who shape and maintain their social networks in ways that help them meet their needs and cope with uncertainty and crisis. However, people's ability to construct their networks and mobilize resources is constrained by structural factors, often out of their control, including disruptive events that force transitions into and out of the different social roles, statuses, and group memberships that accompany mental illness

Life events, social conditions and residential mobility among older adults

This study explores whether and how social conditions—ties to kin and friends as well as loneliness—are related to older adults' residential mobility, in general, and in combination with a late-life event, specifically. Drawing on panel data from the US Health and Retirement Study (N = 9107), logistic regression models examine whether older adult moves are triggered by life events (retirement, widowhood and health deterioration) and loneliness, and discouraged by the presence of nearby social ties (family and friends). The results indicate that becoming retired, becoming widowed, nearby family and nearby friends are indeed independently associated with moving. Loneliness is also associated with residential mobility, even when controlling for nearby family and friends. Social conditions do not, however, moderate the effect of late-life events on older adults' residential mobility. The only exception is the moderating role of loneliness on the effect of retirement: contrary to our expectation, the likelihood of postretirement moves declines with increasing levels of loneliness.</p

Civil Society Reconsidered: The Durable Nature and Community Structure of Collective Civic Action

This article develops a conceptual framework on civil society that shifts the dominant focus on individuals to collective action events— civic and protest alike—that bring people together in public to realize a common purpose. Analyzing over 4,000 events in the Chicago area from 1970 to 2000, the authors find that while civic engagement is durable overall, “sixties-style” protest declines, and hybrid events that combine public claims making with civic forms of behavior — what they call “blended social action”—increase. Furthermore, dense social ties, group memberships, and neighborly exchange do not predict community variations in collective action. The density of nonprofit organizations matters instead, suggesting that declines in traditional social capital may not be as consequential for civic capacity as commonly thought.Sociolog

Social Capital and Cultural Participation: Spousal Influences on Attendance at Arts Events

Empirical efforts to study the determinants of participation in the arts have demonstrated that adult attendance at arts events is influenced by adolescent exposure to the arts, educational attainment, and current income. While many have illuminated the impact of family socialization and individual characteristics, they have neglected the ways in which people’s social relationships influence their adult participation in the arts. This paper begins to redress this imbalance by focusing on the role of one crucial relationship—the tie between spouses—in shaping attendance at arts events. The importance of social ties is demonstrated by the finding that spouse’s background has an impact on an individual’s arts participation comparable to one’s own characteristics and that this effect persists even net of one’s spouse’s own attendance. Consistent with theories of a gendered division of cultural labor, men’s attendance is more strongly influenced by spousal characteristics than is women’s attendance.