The other day as I was searching to find the end of the Internet (no luck yet but I am still convinced it is flat), I came across a post on Danah Boyd’s (@zephoria for you Twitter-heads) blog titled Some Thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook Status Updates. Clearly many other people saw this article as it has over 5,000 clicks tracked by bit.ly and from reading the comments it was apparent that the post resonated with many duel Twitter/Facebook users, as there was a litany of interesting comments about people’s personal use cases. Most of the conversation was focused around the types of crowds people interact with on the different networks, with my favorite description coming from Ian Kennedy who quoted Marry Hodder, “While Facebook is like having a dinner conversation with friends, Twitter was like getting up on stage at a nightclub on open mike night.” This is a great analogy and I think most people who use both networks would agree with the comparison.
What I find to be interesting about this Facebook vs. Twitter issue has less to do with who people are interacting with on the networks and what information they are sharing, but rather which types of relationship people find to be more valuable and more trustworthy. Now I know this is a bit like comparing apples and oranges since the two networks are used for sharing different information types (for the most part) with different networks of users, but let’s forget about these two issues and simply analyze this based on the two different graph designs of the networks.
It is commonly known amongst SNA geeks and many people who study social sciences that the most famous SNA paper published to date is The Strength of Weak Ties written by Mark Granovetter in 1973. Granovetter found that weak ties, basically more distant friends in his study, were positioned to be sources of new information more so than close friends. This idea comes down to the fact that you generally know about the same things as the people you spend a lot of time interacting with, and that new information typically disseminates through your weak ties (technically bridges), people who interact mainly with people outside of your network, who would be sharing different information.
Now considering the two social networking site’s (SNS) graph designs from a high level without getting into the different ways different people use the sites, let’s agree for arguments sake that one typically uses Twitter to connect with weak ties and one uses Facebook to connect more with strong ties (even though we all have “friends” on Facebook that we aren’t really friends with, but I will save the argument that a perfect SNS would have an infinite amount of relationship types for another day). So Twitter = weak ties, Facebook = strong ties. Immediately, the discovery of new and valuable information is more likely on Twitter, making it more valuable right? Well not so fast Ghostrider, some not so recent data (2008) for the real-time world that we live in found that far and away the most trusted source of information was “an email from someone you know“, with 77% of people validating this referral type. On the other hand, only 43% of people actually trust the social network profiles of people they know, making me wonder how much they would say they trust the information they receive from people they don’t technically know on a social networking sites (SNS) – i.e. a weak tie.
When Granovetter explored the topic in 1973, he considered only symmetric relationships as to not complicate his formal math experiments for his thesis (if you want to get into that go read the paper). Considering the expanded opportunity of developing new relationships on the Internet, it doesn’t really make sense to define a weak tie on a SNS the way Granovetter defined them in ’73 based on 1) amount of time 2) emotional intensity 3) intimacy (which he defined as mutual confiding) and 4) the reciprocal services which characterize the tie. Anyone who uses Twitter follows people with whom they are not intimate (based on Granovetter’s mutually confiding restriction) and by nature and purpose the services aren’t reciprocal, but the amount of time and emotional intensity for the follower could still be high, so how weak or strong really are the ties on these networks – sigh, the grey area expands.
This can all be boiled down to this: do you typically value a referral of some sort of information more from a symmetric “strong tie” on Facebook or from an asymmetric “weak tie” on Twitter? (Hold the information type constant in each situation). And secondly, do you trust a referral more from one tie more than the other? And without getting into semantics, yes the two are different (I did just kind of get into semantics huh?). Obviously there is no right answer considering it is somewhat of a subjective measure and a more complete argument would have to take into consideration different information types being shared, but I invite you all to share your own sentiments on the matter.
It is without a doubt in my mind that as we move forward and SNS’s evolve we will begin to make sense of some pretty amazing structural, “macro-level” patterns that happen in our society because of the data we will be able to extract from the microscopic relationships within social networks. I have said it before and I will say it again, we are only at the tip of the iceberg on this stuff.
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
uggs sale…
while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look…
2011…
This is a very good tips especially to those new to blogosphere, brief and accurate information… Thanks for sharing this one. A must read article….
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
flax oil…
[...]you can check the websites in this page for other source of informations on the internet[...]……
cooking classes…
[...]we strongly recommend the websites below this line[...]……
Sample Wedding Invitations…
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back often!…
How To Keep a Man Interested…
This design is incredible! You obviously know how to keep a reader amused. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Great job. I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you pre…
cupcake frosting recipe…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
cold or flu…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Content Creator…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Web Spider Crawlers…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Free Image Hosting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
graphic design blogs…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
How to be rich…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…
Constant Content…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Video Search engines…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Picture search engine…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
2011…
I like what you guys are up too. Such intelligent work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my website
…
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
WoW Gold kaufen…
[...]we strongly recommend the websites below this line that will help[...]……
Pebble…
[...]Demands to play the instrument extra joyfully that need to lead to the production of superior audio. The top quality from[...]…
download audacity…
[...]you can check the websites in this page for rich source of information[...]……
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……