Micro-serendipity: Meaningful Coincidences in Everyday Life Shared on Twitter

Toine Bogers; Lennart Björneborn

doi:10.9776/13175

Micro-serendipity: Meaningful Coincidences in Everyday Life Shared on Twitter

Toine Bogers, Lennart Björneborn

Institut for Kommunikation

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Abstract

In this paper we present work on micro-serendipity: investigating everyday contexts, conditions, and attributes of serendipity as shared on Twitter. In contrast to related work, we deliberately omit a preset definition of serendipity to allow for the inclusion of micro-occurrences of what people themselves consider as meaningful coincidences in everyday life. We find that different people have different thresholds for what they consider serendipitous, revealing a serendipity continuum. We propose a distinction between background serendipity (or ‘traditional’ serendipity) and foreground serendipity (or ‘synchronicity’, unexpectedly finding something meaningful related to foreground interests). Our study confirms the presence of three key serendipity elements of unexpectedness, insight and value (Makri & Blandford, 2012), and suggests a fourth element, preoccupation (foreground problem/interest), which covers synchronicity. Finally, we find that a combination of features based on word usage, POS categories, and hashtag usage show promise in automatically identifying tweets about serendipitous occurrences.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Titel	Proceedings of the iConference 2013
Antal sider	13
Udgivelsessted	IDEALS
Forlag	iSchools
Publikationsdato	28 jan. 2013
Sider	196-208
DOI	https://doi.org/10.9776/13175
Status	Udgivet - 28 jan. 2013
Begivenhed	iConference 2013: Scholarship in Action: Data - Innovation - Wisdom - University of North Texas, Fort Worth, Texas, USA Varighed: 12 feb. 2013 → 15 feb. 2013

Konference

Konference	iConference 2013
Lokation	University of North Texas
Land/Område	USA
By	Fort Worth, Texas
Periode	12/02/2013 → 15/02/2013

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10.9776/13175

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https://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/handle/2142/36052

iConference 2013
Lennart Björneborn (Taler)
12 feb. 2013 → 15 feb. 2013
Aktivitet: Deltagelse i eller arrangement af en begivenhed - typer › Organisation af og deltagelse i konference

Citationsformater

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title = "Micro-serendipity: Meaningful Coincidences in Everyday Life Shared on Twitter",

abstract = "In this paper we present work on micro-serendipity: investigating everyday contexts, conditions, and attributes of serendipity as shared on Twitter. In contrast to related work, we deliberately omit a preset definition of serendipity to allow for the inclusion of micro-occurrences of what people themselves consider as meaningful coincidences in everyday life. We find that different people have different thresholds for what they consider serendipitous, revealing a serendipity continuum. We propose a distinction between background serendipity (or {\textquoteleft}traditional{\textquoteright} serendipity) and foreground serendipity (or {\textquoteleft}synchronicity{\textquoteright}, unexpectedly finding something meaningful related to foreground interests). Our study confirms the presence of three key serendipity elements of unexpectedness, insight and value (Makri & Blandford, 2012), and suggests a fourth element, preoccupation (foreground problem/interest), which covers synchronicity. Finally, we find that a combination of features based on word usage, POS categories, and hashtag usage show promise in automatically identifying tweets about serendipitous occurrences.",

keywords = "serendipity, information behaviour, everyday life, information sharing, social computing, social and community informatics, qualitative data analysis, quantitative data analysis, Twitter, online social networks",

author = "Toine Bogers and Lennart Bj{\"o}rneborn",

year = "2013",

month = jan,

day = "28",

doi = "10.9776/13175",

language = "English",

pages = "196--208",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the iConference 2013",

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AU - Björneborn, Lennart

PY - 2013/1/28

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N2 - In this paper we present work on micro-serendipity: investigating everyday contexts, conditions, and attributes of serendipity as shared on Twitter. In contrast to related work, we deliberately omit a preset definition of serendipity to allow for the inclusion of micro-occurrences of what people themselves consider as meaningful coincidences in everyday life. We find that different people have different thresholds for what they consider serendipitous, revealing a serendipity continuum. We propose a distinction between background serendipity (or ‘traditional’ serendipity) and foreground serendipity (or ‘synchronicity’, unexpectedly finding something meaningful related to foreground interests). Our study confirms the presence of three key serendipity elements of unexpectedness, insight and value (Makri & Blandford, 2012), and suggests a fourth element, preoccupation (foreground problem/interest), which covers synchronicity. Finally, we find that a combination of features based on word usage, POS categories, and hashtag usage show promise in automatically identifying tweets about serendipitous occurrences.

AB - In this paper we present work on micro-serendipity: investigating everyday contexts, conditions, and attributes of serendipity as shared on Twitter. In contrast to related work, we deliberately omit a preset definition of serendipity to allow for the inclusion of micro-occurrences of what people themselves consider as meaningful coincidences in everyday life. We find that different people have different thresholds for what they consider serendipitous, revealing a serendipity continuum. We propose a distinction between background serendipity (or ‘traditional’ serendipity) and foreground serendipity (or ‘synchronicity’, unexpectedly finding something meaningful related to foreground interests). Our study confirms the presence of three key serendipity elements of unexpectedness, insight and value (Makri & Blandford, 2012), and suggests a fourth element, preoccupation (foreground problem/interest), which covers synchronicity. Finally, we find that a combination of features based on word usage, POS categories, and hashtag usage show promise in automatically identifying tweets about serendipitous occurrences.

KW - serendipity

KW - information behaviour

KW - everyday life

KW - information sharing

KW - social computing

KW - social and community informatics

KW - qualitative data analysis

KW - quantitative data analysis

KW - Twitter

KW - online social networks

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DO - 10.9776/13175

M3 - Article in proceedings

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EP - 208

BT - Proceedings of the iConference 2013

PB - iSchools

CY - IDEALS

T2 - iConference 2013

Y2 - 12 February 2013 through 15 February 2013

ER -

Micro-serendipity: Meaningful Coincidences in Everyday Life Shared on Twitter

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