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A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men
BACKGROUND: The Internet has become an important venue for seeking sexual partners and may facilitate transmission of sexually transmitted infections. METHODS: We examined a 64-day data log of flirt messages expressing sexual interest among MSM within the Qruiser.com community. We used logistic regr...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3396616/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22808052 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039717 |
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author | Villani, Antonella Frigessi, Arnoldo Liljeros, Fredrik Nordvik, Monica K. de Blasio, Birgitte Freiesleben |
author_facet | Villani, Antonella Frigessi, Arnoldo Liljeros, Fredrik Nordvik, Monica K. de Blasio, Birgitte Freiesleben |
author_sort | Villani, Antonella |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The Internet has become an important venue for seeking sexual partners and may facilitate transmission of sexually transmitted infections. METHODS: We examined a 64-day data log of flirt messages expressing sexual interest among MSM within the Qruiser.com community. We used logistic regression to analyze characteristics of MSM sending and receiving flirt messages and negative binomial regression to examine individual activity and popularity. The structural properties, including the core structure of the flirt network, were analyzed. RESULTS: The MSM population consisted of approximately 40% homosexuals and 37% bisexuals, while the remaining 23% included men who identified as heterosexual but searched for sex with men and “experimental”. MSM were more likely to send flirt messages if they were homosexual and aged 40+ years; young people aged < 30 years were more likely to receive a flirt. Possession of a webcam was strongly associated with both sending flirt messages and being a flirt target. The distributions of flirts sent (max k(out) = 2162) and received (max k(in) = 84) were highly heterogeneous. Members in central cores were more likely homosexuals, singles, and aged 31–40 years. The probability of a matched flirt (flirt returned from target) increased from 1% in the outer core to 18% in the central core (core size = 4). DISCUSSION: The flirt network showed high degree heterogeneity similar to the structural properties of real sexual contact networks with a single central core. Further studies are needed to explore use of webcam for Internet dating. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3396616 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-33966162012-07-17 A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men Villani, Antonella Frigessi, Arnoldo Liljeros, Fredrik Nordvik, Monica K. de Blasio, Birgitte Freiesleben PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The Internet has become an important venue for seeking sexual partners and may facilitate transmission of sexually transmitted infections. METHODS: We examined a 64-day data log of flirt messages expressing sexual interest among MSM within the Qruiser.com community. We used logistic regression to analyze characteristics of MSM sending and receiving flirt messages and negative binomial regression to examine individual activity and popularity. The structural properties, including the core structure of the flirt network, were analyzed. RESULTS: The MSM population consisted of approximately 40% homosexuals and 37% bisexuals, while the remaining 23% included men who identified as heterosexual but searched for sex with men and “experimental”. MSM were more likely to send flirt messages if they were homosexual and aged 40+ years; young people aged < 30 years were more likely to receive a flirt. Possession of a webcam was strongly associated with both sending flirt messages and being a flirt target. The distributions of flirts sent (max k(out) = 2162) and received (max k(in) = 84) were highly heterogeneous. Members in central cores were more likely homosexuals, singles, and aged 31–40 years. The probability of a matched flirt (flirt returned from target) increased from 1% in the outer core to 18% in the central core (core size = 4). DISCUSSION: The flirt network showed high degree heterogeneity similar to the structural properties of real sexual contact networks with a single central core. Further studies are needed to explore use of webcam for Internet dating. Public Library of Science 2012-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3396616/ /pubmed/22808052 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039717 Text en Villani et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Villani, Antonella Frigessi, Arnoldo Liljeros, Fredrik Nordvik, Monica K. de Blasio, Birgitte Freiesleben A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men |
title | A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men |
title_full | A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men |
title_fullStr | A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men |
title_full_unstemmed | A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men |
title_short | A Characterization of Internet Dating Network Structures among Nordic Men Who Have Sex with Men |
title_sort | characterization of internet dating network structures among nordic men who have sex with men |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3396616/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22808052 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039717 |
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