An analysis of friend circles of Facebook users

The Internet has spawned many different information exchange systems ranging from file sharing to online social networking. Online social networks (OSNs) have gained significant popularity and are considered to be some the most visited sites. OSN users can interact with friends through various features such as connecting with friends, establishing new friendships, sharing photos and videos, and commenting on each others posts. As digital interactions supersede over physical interactions, it is important to understand how users interact over such digital platforms. Moreover, understanding OSN traffic patterns is valuable when designing new OSN platforms and managing content distribution networks. In this study, we provide analysis of online activities that happen around a user, i.e. circles. To better understand activities in a user's friend circle, we developed a Facebook application that monitored the walls of several Facebook users. In particular, we obtained statistics of every post shared with the user by their friends, circles, for 16 volunteers that provided continuous measurements for 15 days.