Comments on: What are Last.fm Friends, Part 1

By: Visiting

Visiting — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:43:59 +0000

With regard to the age similarity, musical tastes change with the generations. It would be interesting to see if those who formed friendships with large age gaps had music genres in common and similarly if those who did not perhaps chose music within a narrow range of what was/is popular in their youth. How much musical choice influence the friendship?

By: Nancy Baym

Nancy Baym — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:44:22 +0000

Kathy — Great question. There were more male respondents than female, and I’d agree with your assessment that Last.fm seems to have more male than female user. And in answer to your specific question == Yes: both women and men are more likely to be friends with men than with women.

I thought women would be likely to have more friends total than men, but that is not the case.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:44:41 +0000

Regarding the cross-sex friendships, I’m guessing there are more men using Last FM than women. (Every one of the music forums I’ve been on have had decidedly more male than female members.) I’d say I’ve become friends with more men than women through Last FM. I wonder if more women claim to have cross-sex friendships than men.

By: elias

elias — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:11:51 +0000

That’s very interesting. I guess the fact that most people have met in real life might also explain the small age difference between friends? Btw, have you followed the discussion on open social networks?
http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem/

I’m looking forward to Part 2! :-)