Multiplexity is temporal: effect of social times on network structure

Abstract

Large-scale social networks constructed using contact metadata—emails, texts, and calls—have been invaluable tools for understanding and testing social theories of society-wide social structures. However, multiplex relationships explaining different social contexts have been out of reach of this methodology, limiting our ability to understand this crucial aspect of social systems. We propose a method that infers latent social times from the weekly activity of large-scale contact metadata, and reconstruct multilayer networks where layers correspond to social times. We then analyze the temporal multiplexity of ties in a society-wide communication network of millions of individuals. This allows us to test the propositions of Feld’s social focus theory across a society-wide network. We show that ties favour their own social times regardless of contact intensity, suggesting they reflect underlying social foci. We present a result on strength of monoplex ties, which indicates that monoplex ties are bridging and even more important for global network connectivity than the weak, low-contact ties. Finally, we show that social times are transitive, so that when egos use a social time for a small subset of alters, the alters use the social time among themselves as well. Our framework opens up a way to analyse large-scale communication as multiplex networks and uncovers society-level patterns of multiplex connectivity.