Patent ID: 8682995

Claim:
A method for restricting a communication in an electronic environment that utilizes a memory and a processor to perform operations comprising: maintaining, in a random access memory of a graphing server, relationship information for a first user of a social network and other users in the social network; receiving an initial communication from a remote user intended for the first user; triggering real-time generation of a social map, in response to the first user logging into the social network, by the graphing server accessing the relationship information for the first user and the other users from the random access memory to calculate social distances between the first user and the other users, the social map mapping the social distances between the first user and the other users in the social network; sorting a plurality of communications intended for the first user including providing high priority communications in the plurality of communications to the first user on a home page of the first user, wherein priority of a communication is based at least in part on the social distance between the first user and the sender of the corresponding communication; determining that the initial communication is a lower priority based at least in part on the social distance from the first user to the remote user such that the initial communication is not displayed at the home page; receiving a request by the first user to display lower priority communications; and providing the initial communication to the first user on the home page responsive to the request.