Eytan Bakshy proves weak ties are useful using network theory and Facebook data. Some excerpts from the article:

Bakshy’s work shares some features with previous communications studies on networks, and it confirms some long-held ideas in sociology. (For instance, the idea that weak ties can be important was first floated in a seminal 1973 study by Mark Granovetter.) It also confirms a few other recent studies questioning the echo chamber, including the economists Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro’s look at online news segregation.

In this way, his study is like a clinical trial: There’s a treatment group that’s subjected to a certain stimulus and a control group that is not, and Bakshy calculated the differences between the two. This allows him to draw causal relationships between seeing a link and acting on it: If you see a link and reshare it while some other user does not see the link and does not share it, this means that the Facebook feed was responsible for the sharing.

via Slate Magazine

Lars Backstrom, Eytan Bakshy, Jon Kleinberg, Thomas M. Lento, Itamar Rosenn. ICWSM 2011

Abstract:

An individual’s personal network — their set of social contacts — is a basic object of study in sociology. Studies of personal networks have focused on their size (the number of contacts) and their composition (in terms of categories such as kin and co-workers). Here we propose a new measure for the analysis of personal networks, based on the way in which an individual divides his or her attention across contacts. This allows us to contrast people who focus a large fraction of their interactions on a small set of close friends with people who disperse their attention more widely.

Using data from Facebook, we find that this balance of attention is a relatively stable property of an individual over time, and that it displays interesting variation across both different groups of people and different modes of interaction. In particular, activities based on communication involve a much higher focus of attention than activities based simply on observation, and these two types of modalities also exhibit different forms of variation in interaction patterns both within and across groups. Finally, we contrast the amount of attention paid by individuals to their most frequent contacts with the rate of change in the identities of these contacts, providing a measure of churn for this set.

via Michigan Interactive & Social Computing

Man assaults wife for not liking his facebook update

“That’s amazing everyone ‘Likes’ my status but you, you’re my wife. You should be the first one to ‘Like’ my status,” he allegedly told her before punching her in the cheek and pulling her hair. He was reportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time.

via Mashable

Pharma marketers have moved onto the social networking site, but fearing a regulatory backlash, many companies have nixed Facebook users’ ability to leave comments on their pages. All pharma companies needed to do was submit a request to a Facebook rep, and commenting would be disabled. That not only prevented patients from submitting critical comments, but also obviated the need to counter those comments—which in turn prevented a crackdown from FDA types keen to make sure that company comments conform to marketing rules. Read more: Facebook: No more ‘no comment’ for pharma - FiercePharma http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/facebook-no-more-no-comment-pharma/2011-05-23#ixzz1VD9qHAJK Subscribe: http://www.fiercepharma.com/signup?sourceform=Viral-Tynt-FiercePharma-FiercePharma

- The Washington Post

The industry is concerned that users might write about bad side effects, promote off-label use or make inappropriate statements about a product, and that the comments could raise concerns from government regulators.

(via CNN.com)

A recent study published in the journal “Social Psychological and Personality Science” found that adults have almost as much need for being popular on Facebook as teenagers do. And people who crave acceptance are more likely to share personal updates and post birthday greetings on friends’ walls, said Emily Christofides, lead author of the study.

• Emily Christofides, 
• Amy Muise, 
• and Serge Desmarais

[link]

(via Forbes)

a study from Carnegie Mellon University in which researchers were able to predict people’s social security numbers after taking a photo of them with a cheap webcam.