Social Media

Kerry Bustamante

How does social media use relate to romantic relationship satisfaction?

Entries

1. Fox, J. f., Osborn, J. j., & Warber, K. k. (2014). Relational dialectics and social networking sites: The role of Facebook in romantic relationship escalation, maintenance, conflict, and dissolution. Computers In Human Behavior, 35527-534.

There was considerable connection between social media use and satisfaction in a romantic relationship. For example, Romantic partners are able to connect with each other and integrate their social networks on Facebook, but some struggle to maintain privacy and independence. Participants were 23 men and 24 women from a small U.S. Midwestern university ranging in age from 18 to 22 who had romantic relationship experience in the time since they started using Facebook. Participants reported spending between 15 min and 5.5 h on Facebook each day. They were recruited by soliciting from courses across the university and offered extra credit in exchange for their participation Participants were asked to comment on both their personal experiences with Facebook and relationships, as well as the experiences of others. This approach was taken for two reasons. First, it allowed for a wider set of observations, and second, dialectical inquiry requires consideration of both struggles within the couple and between the couple and the network. Therefore data from participants reporting both as relational partners and network members was needed. The group interactions ranged from 45 to 55 min in length.

2. Elphinston, R. A., & Noller, P. (2011). Time to face it! Facebook intrusion and the implications for romantic jealousy and relationship satisfaction. Cyberpsychology, Behavior And Social Networking, 14(11), 631-635.

The links between Facebook intrusion, romantic jealousy, and relationship dissatisfaction are concerning for young adults attempting to maintain satisfying intimate relationships, Although feelings of social...