Social Structure of Facebook Networks

Abstract

We study the social structure of Facebook "friendship" networks at one hundred American colleges and universities at a single point in time, and we examine the roles of user attributes - gender, class year, major, high school, and residence - at these institutions. We investigate the influence of common attributes at the dyad level in terms of assortativity coefficients and regression models. We then examine larger-scale groupings by detecting communities algorithmically and comparing them to network partitions based on the user characteristics. We thereby compare the relative importances of different characteristics at different institutions, finding for example that common high school is more important to the social organization of large institutions and that the importance of common major varies significantly between institutions. Our calculations illustrate how microscopic and macroscopic perspectives give complementary insights on the social organization at universities and suggest future studies to investigate such phenomena further.

82 pages (including many pages of tables), 8 multi-part figures, "Facebook100" data used in this paper is publicly available at http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/~porterm/data/facebook100.zip

References in corpus (9)

• Fast unfolding of communities in large networks
• Modularity and community structure in networks
• Natural Scales in Geographical Patterns
• Finding community structure in networks using the eigenvectors of matrices
• Resolution limit in community detection
• Statistical Mechanics of Community Detection
• Structure and tie strengths in mobile communication networks
• Community Structure in Congressional Cosponsorship Networks
• Spectral tripartitioning of networks

Cited by in corpus (172)

• Community detection in networks: A user guide
• The Anatomy of the Facebook Social Graph
• Attributed Social Network Embedding
• Structure and inference in annotated networks
• Community detection in node-attributed social networks: a survey
• Community detection in networks: Structural communities versus ground truth
• Evolutionary dynamics with game transitions
• Homophily and minority size explain perception biases in social networks
• Significant Scales in Community Structure
• Think Locally, Act Locally: The Detection of Small, Medium-Sized, and Large Communities in Large Networks
• Faster unfolding of communities: speeding up the Louvain algorithm
• EDITS: Modeling and Mitigating Data Bias for Graph Neural Networks
• A Simple Generative Model of Collective Online Behaviour
• Element-centric clustering comparison unifies overlaps and hierarchy
• Cumulative effects of triadic closure and homophily in social networks
• Combining Label Propagation and Simple Models Out-performs Graph Neural Networks
• Higher-order clustering in networks
• Dynamical Systems on Networks: A Tutorial
• Multiscale mixing patterns in networks
• Estimation of Simultaneously Sparse and Low Rank Matrices
• Multi-Stage Complex Contagions
• Detection of Core-Periphery Structure in Networks Using Spectral Methods and Geodesic Paths
• Centrality in Modular Networks
• Hierarchical Clustering Supported by Reciprocal Nearest Neighbors
• You are Who You Know and How You Behave: Attribute Inference Attacks via Users' Social Friends and Behaviors
• Active Sensing of Social Networks
• Density-based and transport-based core-periphery structures in networks
• Opinion formation and distribution in a bounded confidence model on various networks
• A Model for the Influence of Media on the Ideology of Content in Online Social Networks
• Empirical analysis of collective human behavior for extraordinary events in blogosphere
• Fast matrix computations for pair-wise and column-wise commute times and Katz scores
• Accelerating Community Detection by Using K-core Subgraphs
• IEDC: An Integrated Approach for Overlapping and Non-overlapping Community Detection
• A Survey on Network Embedding
• Network Representation Learning: A Survey
• Dynamics on Modular Networks with Heterogeneous Correlations
• Network structure, metadata and the prediction of missing nodes and annotations
• Assembling thefacebook: Using heterogeneity to understand online social network assembly
• A testing based extraction algorithm for identifying significant communities in networks
• Latent Multi-group Membership Graph Model
• Hipsters on Networks: How a Small Group of Individuals Can Lead to an Anti-Establishment Majority
• Collective Decision Dynamics in the Presence of External Drivers
• Graph Sample and Hold: A Framework for Big-Graph Analytics
• Predicting Attributes of Nodes Using Network Structure
• Dimensionality of social networks using motifs and eigenvalues
• Degree correlations in signed social networks
• Will Admins Cope? Decentralized Moderation in the Fediverse
• SI-spreading-based network embedding in static and temporal networks
• Network constraints on the mixing patterns of binary node metadata
• Structural differences between open and direct communication in an online community
• Capacity Releasing Diffusion for Speed and Locality
• How does Heterophily Impact the Robustness of Graph Neural Networks? Theoretical Connections and Practical Implications
• Blind identification of stochastic block models from dynamical observations
• New Benchmarks for Learning on Non-Homophilous Graphs
• Detection of Community Structures in Networks with Nodal Features based on Generative Probabilistic Approach
• Graph Size Estimation
• Graph Comparison via the Non-backtracking Spectrum
• Moral foundations in an interacting neural networks society
• "I'm in the Bluesky Tonight": Insights from a Year Worth of Social Data
• Interplay between $k$-core and community structure in complex networks
• Improvements on SCORE, Especially for Weak Signals
• Central limit theorems via Stein's method for randomized experiments under interference
• Percolation and the effective structure of complex networks
• GraphGLOW: Universal and Generalizable Structure Learning for Graph Neural Networks
• Hyperbolic Node Embedding for Signed Networks
• Erdos Goes Neural: an Unsupervised Learning Framework for Combinatorial Optimization on Graphs
• Graph Domain Adaptation: Challenges, Progress and Prospects
• Complex Contagions with Timers
• Counterfactual Learning on Graphs: A Survey
• Densest Diverse Subgraphs: How to Plan a Successful Cocktail Party with Diversity
• A Bi-clustering Framework for Consensus Problems
• Exploration of Large Networks with Covariates via Fast and Universal Latent Space Model Fitting
• The Paradox of Second-Order Homophily in Networks
• Motif-driven Dense Subgraph Discovery in Directed and Labeled Networks
• Efficiently Detecting Overlapping Communities through Seeding and Semi-Supervised Learning
• Revealing effective classifiers through network comparison
• DyGCN: Dynamic Graph Embedding with Graph Convolutional Network
• Towards Quantifying Sampling Bias in Network Inference
• Parallel Maximum Clique Algorithms with Applications to Network Analysis and Storage
• Graph Matching with Partially-Correct Seeds
• What if CLIQUE were fast? Maximum Cliques in Information Networks and Strong Components in Temporal Networks
• Seeding with Costly Network Information
• Matrix Completion with Hierarchical Graph Side Information
• Learning Topological Representation for Networks via Hierarchical Sampling
• Sampling random graph homomorphisms and applications to network data analysis
• GAEA: Graph Augmentation for Equitable Access via Reinforcement Learning
• Locally Estimating Core Numbers
• Emergence of Clustering in an Acquaintance Model without Homophily
• Detecting Latent Communities in Network Formation Models
• Attributed Network Embedding for Incomplete Attributed Networks
• Diversity, Topology, and the Risk of Node Re-identification in Labeled Social Graphs
• A Survey on Learning from Graphs with Heterophily: Recent Advances and Future Directions
• Homophily Within and Across Groups
• Grounding force-directed network layouts with latent space models
• Scalable Constrained Clustering: A Generalized Spectral Method
• Flow-based Algorithms for Improving Clusters: A Unifying Framework, Software, and Performance
• Topics in social network analysis and network science
• Estimating Subgraph Frequencies with or without Attributes from Egocentrically Sampled Data
• Fast Quasi-Threshold Editing
• Stochastic Block Models are a Discrete Surface Tension
• Network Structure and Biased Variance Estimation in Respondent Driven Sampling
• Benchmarking community detection methods on social media data
• The Magic of Networks Grown by Redirection
• Influence Maximization: Divide and Conquer
• Randomized Graph Cluster Randomization
• Better with Less: A Data-Active Perspective on Pre-Training Graph Neural Networks
• What makes people bond?: A study on social interactions and common life points on Facebook
• A power-law decay model with autocorrelation for posting data to social networking services
• Community Detection Based on the $L_{\infty }$ convergence of eigenvectors in DCBM
• A Method Based on Total Variation for Network Modularity Optimization using the MBO Scheme
• Adjusted chi-square test for degree-corrected block models
• Network Formation and Dynamics Among Multi-LLMs
• Coarse-Grained Topology Estimation via Graph Sampling
• Fast Hierarchy Construction for Dense Subgraphs
• Community detection in sparse latent space models
• $p$-Norm Flow Diffusion for Local Graph Clustering
• SCOREH+: A High-Order Node Proximity Spectral Clustering on Ratios-of-Eigenvectors Algorithm for Community Detection
• On the Structural Properties of Social Networks and their Measurement-calibrated Synthetic Counterparts
• Regression adjustments for estimating the global treatment effect in experiments with interference
• A generalized theory of preferential linking
• Demographic and Structural Characteristics to Rationalize Link Formation in Online Social Networks
• Hidden Community Detection in Social Networks
• Dual regularized Laplacian spectral clustering methods on community detection
• Large Deviations of Semi-supervised Learning in the Stochastic Block Model
• Node-based Generalized Friendship Paradox fails
• A comprehensive generalization of the Friendship Paradox to weights and attributes
• Blind Community Detection from Low-rank Excitations of a Graph Filter
• Multilateration of Random Networks with Community Structure
• Community Detection by Principal Components Clustering Methods
• A short review on the maximum clique problem algorithms with classical, AI, and quantum methods
• Contact Graph Epidemic Modelling of COVID-19 for Transmission and Intervention Strategies
• Active Community Detection with Maximal Expected Model Change
• Modeling and Analysis of Tagging Networks in Stack Exchange Communities
• Modelling the spillover from online engagement to offline protest: stochastic dynamics and mean-field approximations on networks
• 2.5K-Graphs: from Sampling to Generation
• Correlation Clustering with Low-Rank Matrices
• A Hybrid Membership Latent Distance Model for Unsigned and Signed Integer Weighted Networks
• Leveraging Evolution Dynamics to Generate Benchmark Complex Networks with Community Structures
• Learning-based link prediction analysis for Facebook100 network
• Generalization of Effective Conductance Centrality for Egonetworks
• How to Quantify Polarization in Models of Opinion Dynamics
• Graph Matching via convex relaxation to the simplex
• Quantifying metadata relevance to network block structure using description length
• Instance Specific Approximations for Submodular Maximization
• Structure of a media co-occurrence network
• Eigen-GNN: A Graph Structure Preserving Plug-in for GNNs
• An optimization approach to locally-biased graph algorithms
• Compressive Sensing for cut improvement and local clustering
• Latent Channel Networks
• Consistent Spectral Clustering of Network Block Models under Local Differential Privacy
• Social Graph Restoration via Random Walk Sampling
• Computing well-balanced spanning trees of unweighted networks
• Universal scaling hypothesis of quantum spatial search in complex networks
• Block-corrected Modularity for Community Detection
• One Node at a Time: Node-Level Network Classification
• Uncovering the Local Hidden Community Structure in Social Networks
• OpenGraphGym-MG: Using Reinforcement Learning to Solve Large Graph Optimization Problems on MultiGPU Systems
• Identifying Influential Users in Unknown Social Networks for Adaptive Incentive Allocation Under Budget Restriction
• The CAT SET on the MAT: Cross Attention for Set Matching in Bipartite Hypergraphs
• Mixed-SCORE+ for mixed membership community detection
• Prisoner's Dilemma on Real Social Networks: Revisited
• Detecting overlapping community structure: Estonian network of payments
• Semi-supervised learning in unbalanced and heterogeneous networks
• Error-Correcting Decoders for Communities in Networks
• Learning Resolution Parameters for Graph Clustering
• Mining Application-aware Community Organization with Expanded Feature Subspaces from Concerned Attributes in Social Networks
• Local law and Tracy--Widom limit for sparse stochastic block models
• Generating realistic scaled complex networks
• Impact of Dynamic Interactions on Multi-Scale Analysis of Community Structure in Networks
• Synergistic effects in threshold models on networks
• Generating online social networks based on socio-demographic attributes
• Long ties accelerate noisy threshold-based contagions