A coevolving model based on preferential triadic closure for social media networks

Abstract

The dynamical origin of complex networks, i.e., the underlying principles governing network evolution, is a crucial issue in network study. In this paper, by carrying out analysis to the temporal data of Flickr and Epinions-two typical social media networks, we found that the dynamical pattern in neighborhood, especially the formation of triadic links, plays a dominant role in the evolution of networks. We thus proposed a coevolving dynamical model for such networks, in which the evolution is only driven by the local dynamics-the preferential triadic closure. Numerical experiments verified that the model can reproduce global properties which are qualitatively consistent with the empirical observations.