High Facebook Activity Leads to Lower Relationship Satisfaction

A study coming out of the University of Kansas found individuals who are highly active on social media sites like Facebook encounter greater problems in their romantic relationships.

The study found individuals report lower levels of intimacy and relationship satisfaction when their partner shares a lot of their life on their Facebook wall than if their partner used the social media service sparingly.

“We found that contrary to the research on offline self-disclosure, which shows that more offline disclosure leads to higher intimacy and relationship satisfaction between both romantic couples and friends, online self-disclosure was negatively associated with intimacy and satisfaction between couples,” said researcher Juwon Lee.

“Greater usage of Facebook predicted lower

satisfaction in romantic relationships.”

Lee and colleagues found greater usage of Facebook predicted lower satisfaction in romantic relationships but not in friendships.

Researchers created two mock Facebook walls: one with high levels of self-disclosure (personal pictures and personal status updates) and one with low levels of self-disclosure (neutral status updates).

Participants were asked to imagine one of the walls was their partner’s, and then researchers measured the participants’ relationship intimacy and satisfaction.

Those whose partners were assigned Facebook walls with high levels of self-disclosure reported less intimacy and satisfaction with their relationships compared to those with the neutral walls.

“Disclosing a high degree of personal information online, regardless of whether or not the information is related to your partner or relationship, will likely negatively affect your romantic relationship,” Lee said.

Source: EurkeAlert.org.