Time as a limited resource: Communication Strategy in Mobile Phone Networks

TL;DR

This study analyzes how mobile phone users allocate limited communication time across their personal networks, revealing constraints on tie strength and consistent disparity patterns regardless of network size or communication volume.

Contribution

It provides large-scale empirical evidence on how time constraints shape communication patterns and tie strength in mobile networks, highlighting persistent disparities.

Findings

Large networks do not receive proportionally more communication time.

Users tend to have weaker ties in larger networks.

Time disparity across networks remains consistent regardless of communication volume.

Abstract

We used a large database of 9 billion calls from 20 million mobile users to examine the relationships between aggregated time spent on the phone, personal network size, tie strength and the way in which users distributed their limited time across their network (disparity). Compared to those with smaller networks, those with large networks did not devote proportionally more time to communication and had on average weaker ties (as measured by time spent communicating). Further, there were not substantially different levels of disparity between individuals, in that mobile users tend to distribute their time very unevenly across their network, with a large proportion of calls going to a small number of individuals. Together, these results suggest that there are time constraints which limit tie strength in large personal networks, and that even high levels of mobile communication do not fundamentally alter the disparity of time allocation across networks.