Modeling What Friendship Patterns on Facebook Reveal About Personality and Social Capital

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate how analysis of users' social network structure-a topic that has remained until recently inconspicuous within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research on social systems-can contribute to our understanding of Social Networking Services (SNS) effect on users. Despite a consensus that SNS enhance people's social capital, prior studies on SNS have provided inconsistent evidence on this process. In a multipronged study, we analyze personality, social capital, and Facebook data from a cohort of participants to model the extent to which one's SNS reflects aspects of his or personality and affects his bridging social capital. Our empirically validated model shows that empathy and conscientiousness influence the structural holes in one's social network, which in turn affects bridging social capital. These findings highlight the importance of network structure as an intermediary between one's personality and the social benefits one reaps from using SNS. Our work demonstrates how the implicit structural information embedded in users' social networks can provide key insights into users' personality and social capital.

What You Post is What You Get: The Mediator Role of Reached Individuals in the Causal Relationship among Posted Content Types and Follower Counts on Facebook

“…In other words, the characteristics of shared material on a Facebook brand page lead to follower growth, indirectly, through the audience it reached on the platform. A telling example for this phenomenon were the four integrated Facebook polls in the present sample, gathering 374, 429, 572 and 2263 reached individuals, several of whom became followers of the page, reflecting on the contagious nature of user interest (Liu et al, 2014;Venkatanathan et al, 2012).…”

“…Based on recent research in terms of user-attraction and interest on social media (Liu et al, 2014;Salganik et al, 2006;Venkatanathan et al, 2012;Wen & Lin, 2010), paired with contemporary trends in online gaming, particularly in the streaming platform of Twitch.tv (Johnson & Woodcock, 2019a, 2019bWoodcock & Johnson, 2019), the aim of the present was to discover user-attraction characteristics of different posted content on the Facebook brand page of a Hungarian Twitch.tv streamer, RandomNickname.…”

“…As it was previously discussed in past research, the phenomenon of user interest and attention is contagious and effectively influences the 'social neighbours' of the attracted individuals as well (Liu, Venkatanathan, Goncalves, Karapanos, & Kostakos, 2014;Venkatanathan, Karapanos, Kostakos, & Gonçalves, 2012;Wen & Lin, 2010). As Salganik, Dodds and Watts (2006) pointed out, people will pay more attention to posts that were previously liked by their friends.…”

Mensuração do Capital Social Acumulado a partir de Interações Sociais em Páginas Institucionais no Facebook.

“…Na perspectiva de análise da estrutura da RSO para inferir o Capital Social, em [Venkatanathan et al 2012] é apresentado um estudo sobre a relação entre a estrutura da rede Facebook, o Capital Social e como essa relação é moderada por traços de personalidade dos agentes. Em [Liu et al 2014] é demonstrado como as informações estruturais implícitas das RSO podem fornecer informações importantes sobre a personalidade e o Capital Social dos usuários conectados nessas redes.…”

Increasing the Reach of Government Social Media: A Case Study in Modeling Government-Citizen Interaction on Facebook

“…An effective Facebook post is not only determined by successful publishing, but also by user reactions. In social networks, user attention and interest can be highly contagious and subject to influences from social neighbors (Liu, Venkatanathan, Goncalves, Karapanos, & Kostakos, ; Venkatanathan, Karapanos, Kostakos, & Goncalves, ; Wen & Lin, 2010). Inevitably, when users face a wide range of posts they are likely to sacrifice paying attention to certain posts.…”