Large-scale analysis of self-disclosure patterns among online social networks users: A Russian context

Slava Kisilevich, Chee Siang Ang, Mark Last

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

Online social network services (SNS) provide an unprecedented rich source of information about millions of users worldwide. However, most existing studies of this emerging phenomenon are limited to relatively small data samples, with an emphasis on mostly "western" online communities (such as Facebook and MySpace users in Western countries). To understand the cultural characteristics of users of online social networks, this paper explores the behavioral patterns of more than 16 million users of a popular social network in the Russian segment of the Internet, namely, My. Mail. Ru (also known as "My World" or "Moj Mir" in Russian). Our main goal is to study the self-disclosure patterns of the site users as a function of their age and gender. We compare the findings of our analysis to the previous studies on Western users of SNS and discuss the culturally distinctive aspects. Our study highlights some important cultural differences in usage patterns among Russian users, which call for further studies in SNS in various cultural contexts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)609-628
Number of pages20
JournalKnowledge and Information Systems
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2012

Keywords

  • Age differences
  • Clustering
  • Correspondence analysis
  • Cultural differences
  • Gender differences
  • Information disclosure
  • Multidimensional scaling
  • Self-disclosure
  • Social networking sites

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Information Systems
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Artificial Intelligence

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