Dynamics of Human Social Networks: People, Time, Relationships, and Places

The availability of advanced social interaction sensing technologies provides fine grained data for social network analysis. Although traditional methods of gathering social network data may be subject to human ability to recall social details, people’s rating of their closeness to persons in their network is important. This study assesses the relationship amidst closeness ratings, sensed interactions and shared places of recreation. The study found that people tend to give high closeness ratings to people with whom they spend more time. Shared places are correlated to social closeness ratings but not to length of interactions. The results of this study highlight the importance of sensed interactions and closeness ratings.