User behavior in online social networks and its implications: a user study

Online social networking service has attracted great interest in recent years. It has emerged as a major medium of communication as it has provided a platform for sharing personal information with vast network of friends. In this paper we present a different perspective of a social network, one that vague nature of friends relationship and show the association of users activities with gender, age and nationality. Results suggest that female are more conservative while accepting friends requests from stranger than males, and that the younger people are more active (and open). We also compare the social activities between two distinct nations -- Norway and Pakistan. Our study revealed that despite of vast differences between these two nations, the online social activities are quite similar. The knowledge gained through such results can aid in filtering, sorting and recommending information over social networks.