Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
3-2010
Abstract
Are two users more likely to be friends if they share common interests? Are two users more likely to share common interests if they're friends? The authors study the phenomenon of homophily in the digital world by answering these central questions. Unlike the physical world, the digital world doesn't impose any geographic or organizational constraints on friendships. So, although online friends might share common interests, a priori there's no reason to believe that two users with common interests are more likely to be friends. Using data from LiveJournal, the authors show that the answer to both questions is yes.
Keywords
Internet, friendship, homophily, interest, social network
Discipline
Databases and Information Systems | Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Publication
IEEE Internet Computing
Volume
14
Issue
2
First Page
15
Last Page
23
ISSN
1089-7801
Identifier
10.1109/MIC.2010.25
Publisher
IEEE
Citation
LAUW, Hady W.; SHAFER, John C.; AGRAWAL, Rakesh; and NTOULAS, Alexandros.
Homophily in the Digital World: A LiveJournal Case Study. (2010). IEEE Internet Computing. 14, (2), 15-23.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/1514
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1109/MIC.2010.25
Included in
Databases and Information Systems Commons, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing Commons
Comments
Special issue on Social Computing in Blogosphere (IC)