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arXiv · 1606.07556

Do the Young Live in a "Smaller World" Than the Old? Age-Specific Degrees of Separation in Human Communication

Yuxiao Dong·Omar Lizardo·Nitesh V. Chawla
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Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the phenomenon of "age-specific small worlds" using data from a large-scale mobile communication network approximating interaction patterns at societal scale. Rather than asking whether two random individuals are separated by a small number of links, we ask whether individuals in specific age groups live in a small world in relation to individuals from other age groups. Our analysis shows that there is systematic variation in this age-relative small world effect. Young people live in the "smallest world," being separated from other young people and their parent's generation via a smaller number of intermediaries than older individuals. The oldest people live in the "least small world," being separated from their same age peers and their younger counterparts by a larger number of intermediaries. Variation in the small world effect is specific to age as a node attribute (being absent in the case of gender) and is consistently observed under several data robustness checks. The discovery of age-specific small worlds is consistent with well-known social mechanisms affecting the way age interacts with network connectivity and the relative prevalence of kin ties and non-kin ties observed in this network. This social pattern has significant implications for our understanding of generation-specific dynamics of information cascades, diffusion phenomena, and the spread of fads and fashions.

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Yuxiao Dong, Omar Lizardo, Nitesh V. Chawla. 2016-06-24. Do the Young Live in a "Smaller World" Than the Old? Age-Specific Degrees of Separation in Human Communication. https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07556

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