Modeling what friendship patterns on facebook reveal about personality and social capital

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate how analysis of users' social network structure-a topic that has remained until recently inconspicuous within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research on social systems-can contribute to our understanding of Social Networking Services (SNS) effect on users. Despite a consensus that SNS enhance people's social capital, prior studies on SNS have provided inconsistent evidence on this process. In a multipronged study, we analyze personality, social capital, and Facebook data from a cohort of participants to model the extent to which one's SNS reflects aspects of his or personality and affects his bridging social capital. Our empirically validated model shows that ..