Abstract
Based on the empirical analysis of contacts in the social network VKontakte, quantitative patterns are established that describe the distribution of users of social networks by the number of contacts (the number of friends). The parameter entering into the differential equation, whose solution is the proposed distribution, makes sense, similar to the Dunbar number and approximately coincides with it in magnitude. The fact that parameters characterizing a given distribution, depending on the size of the communication space in different cities, has been shown. However, the basic parameter that characterizes the fractal dimension of the communication space remains constant for all cities studied.
Highlights
A significant part of the campaigns for the promotion of goods on the market are currently conducted in social online networks [1,2,3,4,5], and such networks are already being used not as an auxiliary tool for campaigning, but as the main one [6]
Social online networks linking a large number of people are an ideal platform for carrying out various information impacts of a mass nature, including in the context of information wars [7,8,9]
On the basis of heuristic considerations and literary data on the nature of the Dunbar number, it is possible to propose a simple semi-empirical model that adequately describes the experimental distributions of users of social online networks by the number of friends
Summary
The study of the communication space, formed by the rapid development of telecommunication technologies, is of considerable interest in several aspects. Social online networks linking a large number of people are an ideal platform for carrying out various information impacts of a mass nature, including in the context of information wars [7,8,9]. Modern telecommunication technologies make it possible to receive online education, which creates a number of advantages (availability of university education courses around the world, saving time for moving, convenience for people with high demands) [10,11,12]. The consistent use of social online networks for various purposes requires their adequate theoretical description at a quantitative level. In this paper we analyze the distribution of users of social online networks by the number of friends (mutual contacts) and a model describing this distribution is proposed
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