Cohesion and interaction in Facebook groups: The case of UMSS Sociology and Anthropology groups

Abstract

The study analyzes the frequency of interaction between members of two public groups on Facebook: Sociología UMSS and Antropología UMSS. Differences in the level of interaction are explained not by the number or the different characteristics of its members, nor the shared content, but rather due the distribution of friendship connections between them. For this, descriptive techniques of social network analysis are used, specifically entire network measures. It was observed that the level of interaction is greater in the group of anthropology and this is associated with greater structural cohesion of this group compared to the group of sociology. In addition to the specific results of the case, the study poses a structural method for measuring some central features of any Facebook group, by linking some classical measures of social network analysis (SNA) with the new characteristics of digital social networks; which is relevant in order to understand and measure the structural aspect of communication in the digital spaces.