Interaction Patterns in a Multilayer Social Network

In this paper, we study the interaction patterns among university students whose interactions are recorded in an aligned multilayer social network. One layer of this network represents the smartphone communications, including calls and text messages. The other layer represents face-to-face interactions. We analyze this multilayer network to find whether communication and face-to-face interactions are correlated, and what impact the aging, that is the growing over time familiarity of each node with its peers, has on students' interaction patterns. We also investigate to what extent the academic year structure and external events, such as holidays, affect the network and the interactions between the nodes, and how the individual's communication pattern profile varies as a function of the node's degree and intensity of its interactions. The results that we obtained shed a light on how students' interaction patterns are impacted by the structure of a social network, its age, and social profiles of its nodes.