IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v428y2015icp239-249.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modeling the heterogeneity of human dynamics based on the measurements of influential users in Sina Microblog

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Chenxu
  • Guan, Xiaohong
  • Qin, Tao
  • Yang, Tao

Abstract

Online social network has become an indispensable communication tool in the information age. The development of microblog also provides us a great opportunity to study human dynamics that play a crucial role in the design of efficient communication systems. In this paper we study the characteristics of the tweeting behavior based on the data collected from Sina Microblog. The user activity level is measured to characterize how often a user posts a tweet. We find that the user activity level follows a bimodal distribution. That is, the microblog users tend to be either active or inactive. The inter-tweeting time distribution is then measured at both the aggregate and individual levels. We find that the inter-tweeting time follows a piecewise power law distribution of two tails. Furthermore, the exponents of the two tails have different correlations with the user activity level. These findings demonstrate that the dynamics of the tweeting behavior are heterogeneous in different time scales. We then develop a dynamic model co-driven by the memory and the interest mechanism to characterize the heterogeneity. The numerical simulations validate the model and verify that the short time interval tweeting behavior is driven by the memory mechanism while the long time interval behavior by the interest mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Chenxu & Guan, Xiaohong & Qin, Tao & Yang, Tao, 2015. "Modeling the heterogeneity of human dynamics based on the measurements of influential users in Sina Microblog," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 428(C), pages 239-249.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:428:y:2015:i:c:p:239-249
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437115001247
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2015.02.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Goldstein & S. Morris & G. Yen, 2004. "Problems with fitting to the power-law distribution," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 41(2), pages 255-258, September.
    2. Baek, Seung Ki & Kim, Tae Young & Kim, Beom Jun, 2008. "Testing a priority-based queue model with Linux command histories," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(14), pages 3660-3668.
    3. Yan, Qiang & Wu, Lianren & Zheng, Lan, 2013. "Social network based microblog user behavior analysis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(7), pages 1712-1723.
    4. Yan, Qiang & Yi, Lanli & Wu, Lianren, 2012. "Human dynamic model co-driven by interest and social identity in the MicroBlog community," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(4), pages 1540-1545.
    5. Alex Kentsis, 2006. "Mechanisms and models of human dynamics," Nature, Nature, vol. 441(7092), pages 5-5, May.
    6. Wang, Peng & Xie, Xiao-Yi & Yeung, Chi Ho & Wang, Bing-Hong, 2011. "Heterogenous scaling in the inter-event time of on-line bookmarking," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(12), pages 2395-2400.
    7. Oliveira, J.G. & Vazquez, A., 2009. "Impact of interactions on human dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(2), pages 187-192.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sun, Zhi & Peng, Qinke & Lv, Jia & Zhong, Tao, 2017. "Analyzing the posting behaviors in news forums with incremental inter-event time," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 479(C), pages 203-212.
    2. Li, Kai & Lv, Tianyang & Shen, Huawei & Qiao, Lisheng & Chen, Enhong & Cheng, Xueqi & Sun, Zhi, 2020. "An empirical analysis on the behavioral differentia of the “Elite-Civilian” users in Sina microblog," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 539(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Kai & Lv, Tianyang & Shen, Huawei & Qiao, Lisheng & Chen, Enhong & Cheng, Xueqi & Sun, Zhi, 2020. "An empirical analysis on the behavioral differentia of the “Elite-Civilian” users in Sina microblog," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 539(C).
    2. Diao, Su-Meng & Liu, Yun & Zeng, Qing-An & Luo, Gui-Xun & Xiong, Fei, 2014. "A novel opinion dynamics model based on expanded observation ranges and individuals’ social influences in social networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 415(C), pages 220-228.
    3. Zhou, Bin & Xie, Jia-Rong & Yan, Xiao-Yong & Wang, Nianxin & Wang, Bing-Hong, 2017. "A model of task-deletion mechanism based on the priority queueing system of Barabási," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 466(C), pages 415-421.
    4. Su, Qiang & Huang, Jiajia & Zhao, Xiande, 2015. "An information propagation model considering incomplete reading behavior in microblog," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 419(C), pages 55-63.
    5. Peng, Dan & Han, Xiao-Pu & Wei, Zong-Wen & Wang, Bing-Hong, 2015. "Punctuated equilibrium dynamics in human communications," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 436(C), pages 36-44.
    6. Yan, Qiang & Wu, Lianren & Zheng, Lan, 2013. "Social network based microblog user behavior analysis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(7), pages 1712-1723.
    7. Rashidisabet, Homa & Ajilore, Olusola & Leow, Alex & Demos, Alexander P., 2022. "Revisiting power-law estimation with applications to real-world human typing dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 599(C).
    8. Wu, Lianren & Qi, Jiayin & Shi, Nan & Li, Jinjie & Yan, Qiang, 2022. "Revealing the relationship of topics popularity and bursty human activity patterns in social temporal networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 588(C).
    9. Gillespie, Colin S., 2015. "Fitting Heavy Tailed Distributions: The poweRlaw Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 64(i02).
    10. Liu, Xiao Fan & Tse, Chi Kong, 2014. "Impact of degree mixing pattern on consensus formation in social networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 407(C), pages 1-6.
    11. Fenner, Trevor & Levene, Mark & Loizou, George, 2010. "Predicting the long tail of book sales: Unearthing the power-law exponent," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(12), pages 2416-2421.
    12. Rezvanian, Alireza & Meybodi, Mohammad Reza, 2015. "Sampling social networks using shortest paths," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 424(C), pages 254-268.
    13. Rafael González-Val, 2012. "A Nonparametric Estimation of the Local Zipf Exponent for all US Cities," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 39(6), pages 1119-1130, December.
    14. Rafael González-Val, 2021. "The Probability Distribution of Worldwide Forest Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, January.
    15. Rafael González‐Val, 2019. "Historical urban growth in Europe (1300–1800)," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(2), pages 1115-1136, April.
    16. Marcus Berliant & Hiroki Watanabe, 2015. "Explaining the size distribution of cities: Extreme economies," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 6(1), pages 153-187, March.
    17. Tomson Ogwang, 2011. "Power laws in top wealth distributions: evidence from Canada," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 473-486, October.
    18. Klabunde, Anna, 2014. "Computational Economic Modeling of Migration," Ruhr Economic Papers 471, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Ogwang, Tomson, 2013. "Is the wealth of the world’s billionaires Paretian?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(4), pages 757-762.
    20. Fenner, Trevor & Levene, Mark & Loizou, George, 2005. "A stochastic evolutionary model exhibiting power-law behaviour with an exponential cutoff," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 355(2), pages 641-656.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:428:y:2015:i:c:p:239-249. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.