Self-organization of a microblogging social network to the edge of chaos

Abstract

Objectives. The purpose of the work is an empirical and theoretical substantiation of the hypothesis that online microblogging social networks can self-organize to the edge of chaos, also known as the edge of a phase transition. Methods. The theoretical substantiation of the hypothesis is based on the construction and analysis of a discrete-time model for a microblogging social network in the form of a sandpile cellular automaton with local Manna rules on a scale-free Chung–Lu random graph. The empirical substantiation is based on the analysis of the spectra of critical power-law exponents using repost activity data from the X microblogging network. Results. The proposed discrete-time model describes with acceptable accuracy the self-organization of the X social network to the edge of chaos, including the edges of first- and second-order phase transitions. Conclusions. A microblogging social network, being an open, dissipative and nonlinear system, self-organizes to the edge of chaos.