Online Social Networks

Preface

Online social networks (OSNs), like Facebook and Twitter, are undoubtedly changing the way we communicate and manage our social lives. The ability to access OSNs from our smart mobile devices is contributing to the so-called cyber-physical world (CPW) convergence, which envisions a world where virtual and physical social interactions are often indistinguishable and completely dependent upon each other.

In this scenario, the analysis of OSNs is a very intriguing and important topic for two reasons. One is that analysing the behaviour of OSN users can lead to new insights into human social behaviour. Whilst it is known that people’s social capacity is bounded by their limited cognitive and time resources, the effect of OSNs on these ...