THE NETWORK IN THE GARDEN Eric Gilbert | Karrie Karahalios | - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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May 21, 2023 516 likes •977 views

THE NETWORK IN THE GARDEN Eric Gilbert | Karrie Karahalios | Christian Sandvig | University of Illinois Do rural and urban people use social media differently? 1. rural demographics 2. brief history of rural telephony 3. our quantitative study

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Eric Gilbert | Karrie Karahalios | Christian Sandvig | University of Illinois

THE NETWORK IN THE GARDEN

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Do rural and urban people use social media differently?

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1. rural demographics
2. brief history of rural telephony
3. our quantitative study of rural social media

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rural: towns with less than 2,500 people

U.S. Census Bureau

not connected to a metropolitan area

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http://flickr.com/photos/9548969@N02/722111742 (used with permission)

Hundred, West Virginia

Population: 344

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UN Demographic Yearbook, 2003. U.S. Census Bureau Summary Files 1 & 3, 2000.

10 20 30 40 50

U.S. World 50% 24% Rural population

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1. rural demographics
2. brief history of rural telephony
3. our quantitative study of rural social media

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Pillow Talk, Universal Pictures, 1959.

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Claude Fischer. America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940.

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Claude Fischer. America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940.

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Claude Fischer. America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940.

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“

Farmers as a class are troublesome customers to handle and are apt to have an exaggerated idea of their own rights. The bumptiousness of certain farmers can be overcome only by constant efforts to educate them …

Telephone industry executive, 1918 (Fischer 96)

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RELATED WORK

Falk: rural social capital

Sociologia Ruralis, 2000

Larson & Baym: rural internet use

University of Kansas, Dept. of Communications, 2007

Relevant social media work

Adamic, Baym, boyd, Donath, Ellison, Lampe, Golder, Hancock, Resnick, Terveen, Wellman, Whittaker, …

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Do rural and urban people use social media differently?

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3,000 MySpace public users 340,000 online friendships 200,000 interpersonal messages

OUR DATASET

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built using ZipDecode by Fry and Heer.

every U.S. zipcode

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built using ZipDecode by Fry and Heer.

every U.S. zipcode + our sample

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N 1661 1721 Rural Urban

10 20 30 40 50 60

R U MySpace ID 2.7M 54M

5 10 15 20 25

R U Age 22 24

2 4 6 8 10

R U Days since login 10 4

Mann-Whitney p < 0.001

demographics & usage

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H5. a preference for strong ties over weak ties
H1. fewer friends and comments
H2. more women
H3. more private profiles
H4. closer friends

rural people will have …

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H1. Rural users will have far fewer friends and comments

than urban users.

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Mann-Whitney p < 0.001

20 40 60 80 100 120

R U Friends 45 104

20 40 60 80 100 120

R U Comments 118 40

5 10 15 20 25 30

R U Unique commenters 11 29

1 2 3 4 5

R U Reciprocal relationships 2 5

H1. fewer friends and comments

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H2. Females will account for a greater proportion of rural

users than urban users.

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Chi-square p < 0.001

R U Gender distribution 48.5% male 59.4% male 51.5% female 40.6% female

H2. more women

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Chi-square p = 0.011

R U Male friendships 35.5% male 38.6% male 64.5% female 61.4% female R U Female friendships 42.5% male 43.7% male 57.5% female 56.3% female

Chi-square p > 0.05

H2. more women

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H3. Rural users will set their profiles to private at higher

rates than urban users.

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Chi-square p < 0.001

Rural Urban Profile privacy 68.5% public 74.9% public 31.5% private 25.1%

H3. more private profiles

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Chi-square p = 0.613 Chi-square p < 0.001

R U Male profile privacy 78.7% public 77.4% public 21.3% 22.6% R U Female profile privacy 60.8% public 73.0% public 39.2% private 27.0%

H3. more private profiles

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H4. Rural users’ friends will live much closer than urban

users’ friends.

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Mann-Whitney p < 0.001

50 100 150 200 250

Rural Urban Median distance to friends 201.7 mi 88.8 mi

H4. closer friends

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0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000

Probability of a strong tie Distance from strong tie (mi) Rural Urban

P(friend > x) ≈ e−(

x 132.84 )0.441

R2 = 0.994

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H5. Compared to urban users, rural users’ distribution of

friends will preference strong ties over weak ties.

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H5. a preference for strong ties over weak ties
H1. fewer friends and comments
H2. more women
H3. more private profiles
H4. closer friends

rural people will have …

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CONCLUSIONS

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Rural people use social media. Rural and urban people use social media differently.

Far fewer friends; friends much closer to home; more private profiles; more women

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Rural people want to reach beyond their communities, but usually do not.

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1. Build for incremental trust.
2. Introduce people.

DESIGN IMPLICATIONS

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A rural perspective could shed new light on technology.

Eric Gilbert | Karrie Karahalios | Christian Sandvig

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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BACKUP SLIDES

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Salganik & Heckathorn. Sampling and Estimation in Hidden Populations Using Respondent-Driven Sampling.

SNOWBALL SAMPLING

sample point

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Salganik & Heckathorn. Sampling and Estimation in Hidden Populations Using Respondent-Driven Sampling.

SNOWBALL SAMPLING

sample point

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