Making Friends in Life and Online: Equivalence, Micro-Correlation and Value in Spatial and Transpatial Social Networks

Social networks are increasingly constructed and maintained by online social networking tools in addition to traditional face-to-face interactions. This paper reports on how the structure of social ties established by online tools relate to those ties established by face-to-face interactions. We explore and map the social ties within a cohort of 2602 users, for whom we study the social ties mediated by both physical co-presence and Facebook. Our results suggest that the spatial social network consisting of face-to-face interactions exhibits similar characteristics to the transpatial social network consisting of Facebook ties. However, we find that individuals’ involvement in each network varies considerably.

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