Structures of broken ties: Exploring unfollow behavior on Twitter

• Main Authors: XU, Bo, HUANG, Yun, KWAK, Haewoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Unfollow relations; Tie dissolution; Twitter; Actor-oriented modeling (SIENA); Snowball sampling.; Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Social Media
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/6097; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/7100/viewcontent/Structures_of_Broken_Ties.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This study investigates unfollow behavior in Twitter, i.e. people removing others from their Twitter following lists. Considering the interdependency and dynamics of unfollow decisions, we use actor-oriented modeling (SIENA) to examine the impacts of reciprocity, status, embeddedness, homophily, and informativeness on tie dissolution. Focusing on ordinary users in tightly-knitted user groups, the results show that relational properties play key roles in the emergence of unfollow behavior: mutual following relations and common followees reduce the likelihood of unfollowing. And unfollow tends to be reciprocal: when a user is unfollowed by someone, he or she will unfollow back. However, there is no evidence of the impacts of homophily based on common interests and informativeness of interactions. The findings suggest that Twitter has many heterogeneous user groups and relational and informational factors may not be applicable universally.