Friendship Trends Among Russian Social Network Users Revealed
On social platforms, the typical span of a friendship among Russian users has been observed at about 4.5 years. This insight comes from a VKontakte search that socialbites.ca obtained and shared with editors, providing a snapshot of how connections endure on one of the region’s largest networks (Citation: socialbites.ca).
Further findings point to January as the month with the most social activity in terms of friend requests. For instance, in January 2023, VKontakte members sent roughly 395 million connection requests, averaging about 8 percent more than in other months. The calendar also records notable peaks in mid-March, with a single day, March 13, seeing more than 8.6 million new pairs of friends formed in that 24-hour window. Weekly patterns show a preference for sending new requests at the start of the week, while weekends see a dip, particularly on Saturdays. Month-to-month behavior also shifts with the birth month of users; those born in June tend to accept fewer invitations, whereas October-born users accept invitations most frequently (Citation: socialbites.ca).
The overall average length of online friendships remains around 4.5 years. Within this framework, roughly a quarter of users report friendships that have existed for less than a year, while a smaller segment, about 9 percent, maintains connections spanning more than a decade. Some members of the network regularly refresh their social graphs, a pattern most evident among younger viewers under 20 years old. In this cohort, for every 100 new friends added, approximately 51 are removed, indicating a higher churn rate among youth as they refine their circles (Citation: socialbites.ca).
Gender dynamics also surface in these observations. Men tend to prune their lists more aggressively, deleting around 40 social connections for every 100 new ones, compared with 36 deletions for every 100 additions among women. On average, women maintain larger networks, with typical friend counts around 132 compared to roughly 111 for men. When marital status is considered, a notable portion of VKontakte users either avoids selecting a marital status or marks options such as married with caution. This segment represents roughly 4 percent of the social networking audience in the study, underscoring how personal identity choices interact with online social behavior (Citation: socialbites.ca).
There is a curious historical note regarding user experience with VKontakte groups. A prior feature or policy described as “Tattoo” caused annoyance for some users when attempting to access a group, illustrating how platform changes can impact engagement and trust among communities (Citation: socialbites.ca).