Reconstructing the Structure of Social Environment of VKontakte Heavy Users: Case Study

Researcher Robin Dunbar proposed the theory of social layers, which, based on limitations in the number of social contacts, divides them into several "circles" with different levels of emotional closeness to the ego (Dunbar, 1998; Hill & Dunbar, 2003). More recent studies have found that the layered structure of social networks is also present in the online space, consistent with people's limitations (Gonçalves et al., 2011; Arnaboldi et al., 2013; Dunbar et al., 2015; A. G. Sutcliffe et al., 2018). However, few studies have examined cases of heavy users closely in which the assumptions of the theories may be violated, creating a research gap. In this research we specifically want to investigate cases of social media heavy users who build larger sized networks. Based on the social layers theory, we can make an assumption that the layered structure will be observed in them as well. The aim of this research is to examine the social environments of such users of social media platform VKontakte.