Study: Facebook Builds Strong Friendship Bonds

Facebook Friends

Facebook Friends

Here’s one simple way to strengthen your real-world ties: Connect with relatives, colleagues and pals on Facebook. The social network’s structure naturally promotes stronger friendships, a study led by Indiana University post-doctoral research fellow Emilio Ferrara found. Researchers examined millions of Facebook users and their social relationships. The data scientists measured community sizes, intimacy within friend circles and interactions using the Label Propagation Algorithm — a statistical formula that can collect and process information coming from large-scale networks such as Facebook. The study’s results confirm all the time we’re spending on Facebook isn’t going to waste. “We discovered that the average degree of communities and their size put into evidence the tendency to self-organization of users into small- or medium-size communities well-connected among each other,” the report states.

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Shelly Palmer

Shelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York's On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television's monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He also hosts United Stations Radio Network's, Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily, a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards).