The Comparison of Online Social Networks in Terms of Structure and Evolution
Thursday, May 1, 2008, 11:15am
325b ITE
Social network systems on the Internet, such MySpace and LinkedIn, are
growing in popularity around the world. The level of such activity is
now comparable to that associated with email and blogs. Our research
addresses the question of whether people in different demographic groups
use these systems in the same way. We also examined the relationship
between membership in on-line social networks and face-to-face networks,
especially with respect to different age cohorts. Older Americans
tend to use email the same way as Americans in general. The usage of
blogs, however, is different, with significant differences in the
temporal and structural patterns of post and response in blogs being
evident in different demographics. Our research has implications for
the design of social network software for older Americans, as well as
the algorithms used in search engines for such systems.