Evidence of Online Performance Deterioration in User Sessions on Reddit

TL;DR

This study analyzes a large Reddit dataset and finds that user comment quality declines over the course of a session, with comments becoming shorter, less complex, and less engaging as session intensity increases.

Contribution

It introduces mixed-effects models to quantify how session intensity impacts comment quality, length, and engagement, revealing performance deterioration during user sessions.

Findings

Comments become shorter and less complex over sessions

Quality scores decline as sessions progress

Engagement decreases with increasing session intensity

Abstract

This article presents evidence of performance deterioration in online user sessions quantified by studying a massive dataset containing over 55 million comments posted on Reddit in April 2015. After segmenting the sessions (i.e., periods of activity without a prolonged break) depending on their intensity (i.e., how many posts users produced during sessions), we observe a general decrease in the quality of comments produced by users over the course of sessions. We propose mixed-effects models that capture the impact of session intensity on comments, including their length, quality, and the responses they generate from the community. Our findings suggest performance deterioration: Sessions of increasing intensity are associated with the production of shorter, progressively less complex comments, which receive declining quality scores (as rated by other users), and are less and less engaging (i.e., they attract fewer responses). Our contribution evokes a connection between cognitive and attention dynamics and the usage of online social peer production platforms, specifically the effects of deterioration of user performance.