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The conversationality index

A quantitative assessment of conversation in social media interactions

ORCiD logo with link | Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
 | University of Nottingham
 | University of Nottingham
Published online: 13 February 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00119.cot
Abstract
There has been an explosion in social media use, with Statista estimating that worldwide, Facebook has over 3 billion regular active users, YouTube 2.5 billion, and Instagram and WhatsApp 2 billion (Statista. 2023. “Biggest social media platforms 2023.” [URL] (accessed 10 October 2013).). While social media allows one to connect and interact with a range of people, increased social media use can be associated with feelings of isolation and symptoms of depression and anxiety. This may in part be because it allows users to engage in activities that appear social but that do not provide meaningful social interaction. We developed the Conversationality Index to assess the quality of social media exchanges based on the length, number of participants and how equally the participants contribute to a written online conversation. After calibrating the Conversationality Index using real and surrogate data, we assessed conversations taken from a 33-million-word database and found that the Conversationality Index consistently distinguished between conversations of varying quality.
Article outline
  • 1.The conversationality index: A quantitative assessment of conversation in social media interactions
    • 1.1Contextualizing the conversationality index
    • 1.2Constructing the conversationality index
      • 1.2.1The ‘Rules’ of conversationality
      • 1.2.2The rule of length
      • 1.2.3The rule of participation
      • 1.2.4The rule of the balance of engagement
      • 1.2.5The rule of the balance of participation
  • 2.Results
    • 2.1Stage 1
    • 2.2Stage 2
    • 2.3Stage 3
    • 2.4Stage 4
    • 2.5Stage 5
    • 2.6Stage 6
  • 3.Discussion and conclusion
  • Note
  • Supplementary material
  • References
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