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An agent-based model of the development of friendship links within Facebook

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  • Syed Muhammad Ali Abbas

    (Manchester Metropolitan University Business School)

Abstract

This paper investigates how local preferences and social structural constraints might affect the development of the friendship network in Facebook. We do this by analyzing a dataset of an American university, Caltech, and by building an agent-based simulation for comparison. Several different, but plausible, processes of friendship network development are proposed in which the structural information of the growing network and the student preferences are taken into account. ‘Network formation based on personal preference and social structure’ matches the data best, and is thus the preferred hypothesis for the way that students add “friends” on Facebook.

Suggested Citation

  • Syed Muhammad Ali Abbas, 2013. "An agent-based model of the development of friendship links within Facebook," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 232-252, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:comaot:v:19:y:2013:i:2:d:10.1007_s10588-013-9156-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10588-013-9156-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Marmaros & Bruce Sacerdote, 2006. "How Do Friendships Form?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 79-119.
    2. Mayer, Adalbert & Puller, Steven L., 2008. "The old boy (and girl) network: Social network formation on university campuses," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 329-347, February.
    3. Pietro Panzarasa & Tore Opsahl & Kathleen M. Carley, 2009. "Patterns and dynamics of users' behavior and interaction: Network analysis of an online community," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(5), pages 911-932, May.
    4. Matthew O. Jackson & Brian W. Rogers, 2007. "Meeting Strangers and Friends of Friends: How Random Are Social Networks?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 890-915, June.
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