Module 4

WAD 4
Module 4 : Network Connections and Social Dynamics
Making Connection: Link Analysis, Random Graphs and
Network evolution, Social Connects: Affiliation and identity.
Connection Search, Collapse, Robustness Social involvements and
diffusion of innovation
Network connections and social dynamics involve
analyzing how people connect and interact,
studying the structures and behaviors within those connections
to understand social phenomena like information flow, influence, and
community formation.

Social phenomena are observable events, behaviors, or trends that arise from
social interactions and influence or are influenced by individuals and groups
within a society
Key Concepts in Social Network Analysis:
□ Nodes: Represent individuals or entities within the network.
□ Ties/Edges/Links: Represent relationships or interactions between nodes.
□ Centrality: Measures the importance or influence of a node within a network.
□ Community Detection: Identifying groups of nodes that are more densely connected
within the group than to nodes outside the group.
□ Network Density: The proportion of actual connections to possible connections in a
network.
What are Network Connections and Social Dynamics?
Social Network Analysis (SNA):
✔ This field examines social structures by mapping connections between individuals
(nodes) and the relationships (ties) that link them.
Social Networks:
✔ These are the webs of connections between people, which can be strong (close
relationships) or weak (looser connections).
Social Dynamics:
✔ This refers to the processes and changes within social structures, including how
people interact, norms evolve, and behaviors change.
Dynamic Networks:
✔ These are networks that evolve over time, considering temporal information and
changes in connections and behaviors.
SNA useage
Public Health:
SNA can be used to understand the spread of diseases or behaviors within a
community.
Marketing and Advertising:
SNA can help target marketing efforts by identifying key influencers and relevant
groups.
Organizational Dynamics:
SNA can help understand communication patterns and identify informal leaders
within an organization.
Political Science:
SNA can be used to study political networks, policy networks, and power
structures.
Applications of Social Network Analysis (SNA):
Understanding Social Structures:
SNA helps map and analyze social structures, revealing patterns of relationships and
influence.
Identifying Key Individuals:
SNA can identify influential individuals or "hubs" within a network.
Analyzing Information Flow:
SNA can map how information, rumors, or ideas spread within a network.
Understanding Collaboration:
SNA can help understand how people collaborate and share resources within a
network.
Link analysis
Link analysis is an analytics technique used to identify, evaluate and understand
the connections within data.
Link analysis in social networks helps understand relationships and connections
between entities by mapping out interactions and applying analytical
techniques to identify patterns, structures, and potential implications within
the network.
By examining relationships and connections, link analysis aids in understanding
complex networks, and facilitates informed decision-making
The data to perform link analysis is stored in a graph database and then is
displayed as a graph visualization, also called a network visualization.
how link analysis works in the context of social networks:
Data Mining Approach:
Link analysis is a data mining technique used to analyze and evaluate the
associations between nodes (individuals, organizations, etc.) within a network.
Focus on Relationships:
It emphasizes the relationships and interactions between entities, rather than the
entities themselves.
Visualization and Analysis:
It involves mapping out these relationships and applying various analytical
techniques to understand the structure, dynamics, and implications of the network.
Steps in Link Analysis:
Define the Scope:
Determine the initial scope of the data network you want to analyze.
Collect Data:
Gather relevant data about the entities and their connections.
Visualize the Network:
Use tools to visualize the network and its connections.
Analyze Links:
Analyze the links between nodes for patterns, outliers, and potential insights.
Follow Up:
Investigate any suspicious patterns or connections that emerge.
How it's Used in Social Networks:
Identifying Clusters and Groups:
Link analysis can reveal clusters or subgroups of individuals who are closely
connected.
Understanding Network Structure:
It helps map out the overall structure of the social network, including who is
connected to whom and how.
Detecting Influential Nodes:
Link analysis can identify individuals who are highly connected or have a large
number of followers, indicating potential influencers.
Predicting Future Connections:
By analyzing existing connections, link analysis can help predict which individuals
are likely to connect in the future.
Detecting Fraud and Malicious Activity:
Link analysis can be used to identify suspicious patterns or connections that might
indicate fraudulent or malicious activity.
Understanding Social Dynamics:
It can help understand how information, ideas, and behaviors spread through a
network.
Random graph
Random graph models are used to model social networks by representing connections
between individuals as random edges, allowing for the study of network properties
and dynamics.
mathematical representations of networks where connections (edges) between nodes
(individuals) are established randomly, with a certain probability.
By using random graph models, researchers can study various network properties,
such as clustering, connectivity, and the spread of information or influence.
What is a random graph in social network analysis?
A random graph is obtained by starting with a set of n isolated vertices and adding
successive edges between them at random.
The aim of the study in this field is to determine at what stage a particular property of
the graph is likely to arise
Examples:
Friendship Networks:
Modeling connections between people in social media or real-life groups.
Collaboration Networks:
Representing collaborations between researchers or artists.
Information Networks:
Studying how information spreads through a network of individuals.
Benefits of Random Graph Models:
Simplicity:
They provide a relatively simple way to model complex network structures.
Versatility:
They can be used to study various network properties and dynamics.
Analytical Tools:
They offer tools for analyzing and predicting network behavior
Connection Search, Collapse, Robustness Social involvements
and diffusion of innovation
Social Connects: Affiliation and identity.
□ Social identity, a crucial aspect of human connection, refers to the part of our
self-concept derived from group memberships, influencing our sense of belonging,
purpose, and self-worth.
It's distinct from personal identity, which focuses on individual attributes.
Social Identity vs. Personal Identity:
Social Identity: Refers to the part of a person's self-concept derived from their
membership in social groups, emphasizing "we" and "us".
Personal Identity: Relates to a person's sense of themselves as a unique individual,
focusing on "I" and "me".
 Social affiliation refers to the need for and engagement in positive social interactions
and relationships, encompassing behaviors and attitudes that promote closeness and
connection with others.
Definition:
Social affiliation is a fundamental human need to form and maintain relationships,
seek out the company of others, and experience a sense of belonging and connection.

Social affiliation is crucial for:

✔ Emotional well-being: Strong social connections can buffer against stress and promote happiness and
overall mental health.
✔ Physical health: Social isolation and loneliness can negatively impact physical health, while strong
social connections can contribute to better health outcomes.
✔ Survival and cooperation: Humans have evolved to rely on social groups for survival and cooperation,
and affiliation is a key factor in this process.
It can manifest in various ways, including:
Seeking out social interactions: Actively engaging in conversations, joining groups,
and participating in social activities.
Maintaining relationships: Nurturing existing friendships and partnerships, and
seeking support from others.
Expressing empathy and care: Showing concern for others' well-being and offering
assistance.
Non-verbal cues: Reducing physical distance from others, making eye contact, and
using positive body language.
Examples:
▪ A person attending a social gathering to meet new people.
▪ A group of friends regularly meeting for coffee or outings.
▪ A child seeking comfort from a parent or caregiver.
Related concepts:
✔ Attachment:
A strong emotional bond between individuals, often developed in infancy.
✔ Belonging:
The feeling of being accepted and valued as part of a group.
✔ Social bonding:
The process by which individuals form and maintain relationships.
In the context of search "collapse" refers to grouping or summarizing search results
based on a specific field, returning only the top document within each group, which
helps reduce redundancy and improve efficiency.
✔ Purpose:
Collapse aims to reduce redundancy in search results by grouping similar or related
documents together and displaying only the top-ranked document from each group.
✔ How it Works:
You specify a field (e.g., user.id or category) to collapse on.
The search engine groups documents based on the values of that field.
It then returns only the top-ranked document within each group, effectively
eliminating duplicates.
Examples:
In an e-commerce context, you might collapse search results by product ID to
show only one listing for each product.
In a social media platform, you could collapse search results by user ID to display
only one post per user.
Implementation:
Many search engines and data platforms (e.g., Elasticsearch, OpenSearch,
Amazon Kendra) offer features or parameters to enable result collapsing.
The specific syntax or API calls may vary depending on the platform.
❖ "Content collapse" in the context of social media or online platforms refers to the
blurring of different communication contexts, where content intended for a
specific audience becomes visible to a broader, potentially unintended audience,
leading to potential misunderstandings and privacy concerns.
Causes:
✔ This phenomenon is often attributed to the open nature of social media, where
posts are generally accessible to a wide range of people, regardless of the
intended audience.
Examples:
▪ Sharing a post on Facebook with the default "Friends" setting, which effectively
shares it with a wide range of people, including those from different social circles.
▪ The retweeting functionality on Twitter, where a public user's tweet can be
retweeted by anyone, thus introducing the content to a new audience.
Consequences:
Privacy Concerns: Individuals may feel pressured to curate their online presence
carefully, potentially leading to a conflict between their authentic self and the
persona they project online to avoid negative repercussions.
Misunderstandings: Content intended for one audience might be misinterpreted
by others with different backgrounds and expectations.
Trivialization: Information might be presented at the lowest common
denominator, regardless of its quality.
Homogenization: Responses to information can become standardized, using the
same tools provided by the platform
Robustness
In the context of analysis, "robustness" refers to the ability of a method or system
to remain unaffected by small, but deliberate variations in parameters or
conditions, ensuring reliable and consistent results.
In social network analysis, robustness refers to a network's ability to maintain its
functionality or connectivity despite the removal of nodes or edges (representing
individuals or connections). It's often assessed by simulating attacks or failures
and measuring the network's resilience.
Robustness, in the context of social networks, is the capacity of a network to
withstand disruptions and maintain its structure and functionality.
 How it's measured:
✔ Simulations: Researchers often use simulations to model attacks or failures, such as
randomly removing nodes or edges, and then analyze the impact on the network's
structure and connectivity.
Metrics: Common metrics used to assess robustness include:
✔ Largest Connected Component (LCC): The size of the largest group of nodes that
remain connected after a simulated attack.
✔ Network diameter: The longest path between any two nodes in the network.
✔ Average path length: The average length of the shortest paths between all pairs of
nodes in the network.
✔ Assortativity: A measure of the tendency of nodes to connect with similar or
dissimilar nodes.
Types of Attacks:
Random attacks: Nodes or edges are removed randomly.
Targeted attacks: Nodes or edges are removed based on their importance or
centrality within the network (e.g., removing high-degree nodes).
Examples:
Online social networks: Studying the robustness of online social networks can help
understand how information spreads, how communities are formed, and how
networks can be manipulated.
Social involvement, also known as social engagement or social participation, refers to
the extent to which an individual actively participates in social relationships and
activities within a community or society.
Definition:
Social involvement encompasses an individual's degree of participation in a
community or society, including activities like getting together with friends,
volunteering, attending religious services, belonging to groups, and participating in
community events or sports.
It refers to the extent of active participation and engagement in social relationships
and activities within a community or group
Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate
new ideas and technology spread
Diffusion of innovation studies aim to understand what stimulates the adoption of a
resource, such as an idea or product, and how such a decision can affect a social
structure and context.
Diffusion of innovation is the process of spreading the uptake of new ideas through
communication by utilizing the media, which occurs within a certain period of time
5 steps of diffusion of innovation
Knowledge. The first step in the diffusion of innovation is knowledge. ...
Persuasion. Persuasion is the point at which the prospective adopter is open to the
idea of purchase. ...
Decision. Eventually the would-be adopter must make a decision. ...
Implementation. ...
Confirmation.
Bass diffusion model
The Bass Diffusion Model, developed by Frank Bass, is a predictive model used to
forecast the adoption of new products, assuming adoption is driven by both
innovation (external influences) and imitation (internal influences)
Observability – is “the degree to which the results of the innovation are visible to
others. The chances of adoption are greater if folks can easily observe relative
advantages of the new technology. In fact, after some adopt, observability can
improve the diffusion effect, a critical component of technology transfer”.
Example:
▪ The diffusion of innovations theory has been observable for decades in various
innovations and technologies, including the The internet.
▪ In the early 1990s, the internet was primarily used by innovators and early
adopters.
Laggards are characterized by their slow adoption rate and reluctance to embrace
new innovations.