Is a 'Friend' a Friend? Investigating the Structure of Friendship Networks in Virtual Worlds

摘要

In this paper, we examine online friendships at a network level. We focus on three structural signatures: network size, balance (triangles), and age homophily in the friendship ego-networks of 30 users of the virtual world Second Life. In relation to previous findings from studies of offline friendship networks, our results reveal that online networks are similar in age-homophily, but significantly different in size and balance.