Community gifting groups on Facebook

We use de-identified data from Facebook Groups to study and provide a descriptive analysis of local gift-giving communities, in particular Buy Nothing groups. These communities allow people to give items they no longer need, reduce waste, and connect to local community. Millions of people have join...

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Main Authors: Amaç Herdağdelen, Lada Adamic, Bogdan State
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: HOPE 2023-12-01
Series:Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journalqd.org/article/view/3970
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author Amaç Herdağdelen
Lada Adamic
Bogdan State
author_facet Amaç Herdağdelen
Lada Adamic
Bogdan State
author_sort Amaç Herdağdelen
collection DOAJ
description We use de-identified data from Facebook Groups to study and provide a descriptive analysis of local gift-giving communities, in particular Buy Nothing groups. These communities allow people to give items they no longer need, reduce waste, and connect to local community. Millions of people have joined Buy Nothing groups on Facebook, with an increasing pace through the COVID-19 pandemic. Buy Nothing groups are more popular in dense and urban US counties with higher educational attainment. Compared to other local groups, Buy Nothing groups have lower Facebook friendship densities, suggesting they bring together people who are not already connected. The interaction graphs in Buy Nothing groups form larger strongly connected components, indicative of norms of generalized reciprocity. The interaction patterns in Buy Nothing groups are similar to other local online gift-giving groups, with names containing terms such as `free stuff" and `pay it forward". This points to an interaction signature for local online gift-giving communities.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 2673-8813
language English
publishDate 2023-12-01
publisher HOPE
record_format Article
series Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media
spelling doaj-art-77f6ba0e53ca4664a8b1ec28293b4ff42025-08-20T03:36:58ZengHOPEJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2673-88132023-12-01310.51685/jqd.2023.017Community gifting groups on FacebookAmaç HerdağdelenLada AdamicBogdan State0Scie.nz We use de-identified data from Facebook Groups to study and provide a descriptive analysis of local gift-giving communities, in particular Buy Nothing groups. These communities allow people to give items they no longer need, reduce waste, and connect to local community. Millions of people have joined Buy Nothing groups on Facebook, with an increasing pace through the COVID-19 pandemic. Buy Nothing groups are more popular in dense and urban US counties with higher educational attainment. Compared to other local groups, Buy Nothing groups have lower Facebook friendship densities, suggesting they bring together people who are not already connected. The interaction graphs in Buy Nothing groups form larger strongly connected components, indicative of norms of generalized reciprocity. The interaction patterns in Buy Nothing groups are similar to other local online gift-giving groups, with names containing terms such as `free stuff" and `pay it forward". This points to an interaction signature for local online gift-giving communities. https://journalqd.org/article/view/3970online communityBuy Nothinggiftinggift economies
spellingShingle Amaç Herdağdelen
Lada Adamic
Bogdan State
Community gifting groups on Facebook
Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media
online community
Buy Nothing
gifting
gift economies
title Community gifting groups on Facebook
title_full Community gifting groups on Facebook
title_fullStr Community gifting groups on Facebook
title_full_unstemmed Community gifting groups on Facebook
title_short Community gifting groups on Facebook
title_sort community gifting groups on facebook
topic online community
Buy Nothing
gifting
gift economies
url https://journalqd.org/article/view/3970
work_keys_str_mv AT amacherdagdelen communitygiftinggroupsonfacebook
AT ladaadamic communitygiftinggroupsonfacebook
AT bogdanstate communitygiftinggroupsonfacebook