Online social-network sensing models

The Online Social Network has become a part of day-to-day life to such an extent that the textual and multimedia data collected on such platforms can be used to identify the behavioral patterns of individuals and groups both instantaneously as well as over a period of time. This chapter studies the three different online social-network-sensing models prevalent in the literature, namely, Network-Structure Analysis, Text Analysis, and Smartphone Sensing. The chapter explains the three different approaches to online social-network sensing and highlights the state-of-the-art. Network-Structure Analysis, which identifies the key structural properties (such as centrality measures) and their variance across different online social networks, provides a perspective into the growth and community behavior of the network as a whole. Text Analysis, which identifies the context and polarity of textual content shared throughout online social networks, signifies the communicative and community-formative behavior of an individual in the network. Smartphone Sensing, which considers the amount and intensity of online social-network activity using smartphones of an individual, identifies the degree of online social-networking addiction of individuals in a network.