Limited communication capacity unveils strategies for human interaction
Open accessAbstract
Connectivity is the key process that characterizes the structural and functional properties of social networks. However, the bursty activity of dyadic interactions may hinder the discrimination of inactive ties from large interevent times in active ones. We develop a principled method to detect tie de-activation and apply it to a large longitudinal, cross-sectional communication dataset (≈19 months, ≈20 million people). Contrary to the perception of ever-growing connectivity, we observe that individuals exhibit a finite communication capacity, which limits the number of ties they can maintain active in time. On average men display higher capacity than women, and this capacity decreases for both genders over their lifespan. Separating communication capacity from activity reveals a diverse range of tie activation strategies, from stable to exploratory. This allows us to draw novel relationships between individual strategies for human interaction and the evolution of social networks at global scale.
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The larger a person's network (above 40), the less time they spend engaging with each contact.
“Moreover, the larger a person's network (>40), the less time they spend engaging with each contact [23].”
From Two social lives: how differences between online and offline interaction influence social outcomes (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
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- Authors
- Miritello, G., Lara, R., Cebrian, M., & Moro, E.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (ES)
- Telefonica Research and Development (ES)
- Instituto de Ingeniería del Conocimiento (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Moro, Esteban
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2013-06-06
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1950-1950
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3674429
- OpenAlex
- W1983280144
- Cited by
- 214
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 10
- FWCI
- 14.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0905645)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Army Research Office (W911NF, W911NF-11-1-0363, W911NF-11)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis
- Keywords
- communication skills, inter-event time, social network evolution, human interaction, gender differences, lifespan development, network connectivity
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