Geography of Twitter Networks
Yuri Takhteyev, Anatoliy Gruzd, and Barry Wellman
Social Networks 34 (2012) 73– 81
Article Abstract
The paper examines the influence of geographic distance, national boundaries, language, and frequency
of air travel on the formation of social ties on Twitter, a popular micro-blogging website. Based on a large
sample of publicly available Twitter data, our study shows that a substantial share of ties lies within the
same metropolitan region, and that between regional clusters, distance, national borders and language
differences all predict Twitter ties. We find that the frequency of airline flights between the two parties is
the best predictor of Twitter ties. This highlights the importance of looking at pre-existing ties between
places and people.