Multi-frequency rhythms in activity of mixed human population in social networking sites – a preliminary study

Abstract

There has been a global surge in the use of social networking sites (SNSs), like Facebook (FB) and WhatsApp (WA). Many studies have been conducted thus far highlighting the effects of use of SNSs on psychosocial behavior, but none on biological rhythms. The main aim of this study was to ascertain rhythms in intensity of FB use and WA chats as a group/population phenomenon. Of the two authors, RA has a FB account consisting of 291 friends, whereas AKP has 1031 friends at the time of this study. RA used Raipur Rockers (RR) group and AKP used BHU-MSc’77 (BHU) group from their respective WA accounts. The findings indicate the presence of multi-frequency rhythms in the intensity of online activity among the FB friends and in the frequency of chat postings among the members of the RR and BHU groups. A difference in the peak timings of activity between RR and BHU groups could be attributed to the factor, ‘age.’ While more intensive research is warranted in this area, for the time being, the difference in the pattern of activity between young and old SNSs users might have a bearing on the success of e-business possibly through appropriate scheduling of e-advertisements.