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Temporal Networks pp 175–190Cite as

Time Allocation in Social Networks: Correlation Between Social Structure and Human Communication Dynamics

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Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

Recent research has shown the deep impact of the dynamics of human interactions (or temporal social networks) on the spreading of information, opinion formation, etc. In general, the bursty nature of human interactions lowers the interaction between people to the extent that both the speed and reach of information diffusion are diminished. Using a large database of 20 million users of mobile phone calls we show evidence this effect is not homogeneous in the social network but in fact, there is a large correlation between this effect and the social topological structure around a given individual. In particular, we show that social relations of hubs in a network are relatively weaker from the dynamical point than those that are poorer connected in the information diffusion process. Our results show the importance of the temporal patterns of communication when analyzing and modeling dynamical process on social networks.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Similar results are found if the total amount of time is used for w ij instead of the number of calls.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Telefónica for providing access to the anonymized data. E.M. and G.M. acknowledge funding from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) through projects i-Math, FIS2006-01485 (MOSAICO), and FIS2010-22047-C05-04.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Matemáticas & GISC, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911, Leganés, Spain

    Giovanna Miritello & Esteban Moro

  2. Telefónica R&D, Madrid, Spain

    Giovanna Miritello & Rubén Lara

  3. Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas CSIC-UAM-UCM-UC3M, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Esteban Moro

  4. Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Esteban Moro

Authors
  1. Giovanna Miritello
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  2. Rubén Lara
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  3. Esteban Moro
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Correspondence to Esteban Moro .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ice Lab, Department of Physics, Umeå University, Ice Lab, 3rd floor, NA wing, Naturvetarhuset, Umeå, 901 87, Sweden

    Petter Holme

  2. and Computational Sciences (BECS), Department of Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Rakentajanaukio, Otaniemi campus 2, Aalto, 00076, Finland

    Jari Saramäki

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Miritello, G., Lara, R., Moro, E. (2013). Time Allocation in Social Networks: Correlation Between Social Structure and Human Communication Dynamics. In: Holme, P., Saramäki, J. (eds) Temporal Networks. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36461-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36461-7_9

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