Facebook makes the heart grow fonder

Abstract

The increasing ubiquity of information and communication technologies has dramatically impacted interpersonal communication and relationship maintenance processes. These technologies remove temporal and spatial constraints, enabling communication at a distance for low to no physical costs. Research has established that technologies such as email supplement other forms of communication in relationship maintenance, but to what extent do newer technologies-which contain a unique set of affordances-facilitate these processes? Furthermore, do SNS users engage in different practices through the site and obtain different relational benefits based on specific characteristics of the tie? Findings from a survey of adult Facebook users (N=415) indicate that geographically distant Facebook Friends, as well as those who rely on the site as their primary form of communication, engage in relationship maintenance strategies through the site to a greater extent and perceive the site to have a more positive impact on the quality of their relationships.

Demanding by Design

“…On the one hand, they need to ensure that their products meet contemporary expectations for efficiency and ease of use [43]. Lightweight communication tools are used for many everyday aspects of relational maintenance [47] and thus it is clear that not all interactions should require high effort. Yet designers must also recognise that people sometimes wish to convey a level of sincerity that is not necessarily associated with messages that are trivial to produce [38,48].…”

“…These views are further supported by the CSCW literature on relational maintenance in social media [16,42,47]. Platforms such as Facebook are characterised by communication outlets that lower the effort required to connect with a large social circle [45].…”

Couples’ Use of Technology in Maintaining Relationships

“…Through focus groups with college students, Bryant and Marmo (2009) identified a similar set of maintenance behaviors on Facebook as in the offline relationship maintenance literature, but they also introduced a new measure of surveillance by which participants monitor friends' Facebook profiles to keep up with their life events and maintain a feeling of connectedness. Vitak (2012Vitak ( , 2014) developed a new set of Facebook relationship maintenance strategies (supportive communication, shared interests, passive browsing, and social information seeking) through exploratory factor analysis. She observed a positive association between relational closeness and Facebook maintenance behaviors, and the association proves stronger for those who live far apart as well as for those who use Facebook as the primary means of communication.…”

“…This deductive approach neglects the qualitative differences in maintenance behaviors across media and the possible needs for new maintenance behaviors as the media shift (Tong & Walther, 2011). A number of studies have started to address this limitation by adopting an inductive approach to understand relationship maintenance on Facebook (Bryant & Marmo, 2009;McEwan, Fletcher, Eden, & Sumner, 2014;Vitak, 2014). This study can further contribute by examining a wider range of communication channels.…”

Seeking support online

“…Establishing connections to both diverse perspectives and people with shared experiences might be easier through highly visible channels (Rains, Peterson, & Wright, 2015). Several studies provide evidence that the visibility of information can help individuals establish common ground (Lampe, Ellison, & Steinfield, 2007) and maintain relationships (Vitak, 2014). The visibility of channels, then, can benefit support seekers when it facilitates access to sources of support that are either unavailable or difficult to access through other channels.…”