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Relational maintenance and CMC
... Although LDR couples have been finding ways to cultivate satisfying relationships long before the dawn of smartphones, results from the current study provide evidence for a uniquely beneficial role of frequent and responsive text messaging for people in LDRs (but not GCRs). These results run contrary to a substantial literature suggesting a null or even negative impact of frequent texting for relationships (Goodman-Deane et al., 2016;Jin & Peña, 2010;Luo, 2014) and highlight the critical need for researchers to consider the situational contexts in which couples use remote communication (Tong & Walther, 2011). Note. ...
... Although text messaging does not provide the same visual and auditory cues afforded by video and voice calls, people in LDRs may still use texting to help mimic the types of in-person interactions they would otherwise be having if they were living in close proximity. For example, sending short messages to say "good morning" and "good night" and sharing the mundane details of day-to-day experiences may serve to enhance the perception that one's partner is present and included in their daily lives (Masuda & Duck, 2002;Tong & Walther, 2011). ...
... The weak findings for videochatting and relationship quality video calls contradicts the cues-filtered out theories (Culnan & Markus, 1987), which argue that the effectiveness of social interactions should increase as the number of available verbal and non-verbal cues increase. As Tong and Walther (2011) have pointed out, "lightweight tools" such as text messaging may actually be more appealing and effective than phone calls or video calls because they enable users to engage in frequent relationship maintenance without investing a great deal of time or cognitive effort. Clearly, not all forms of mediated-communication are created equal (Hampton et al., 2017). ...
Due to the widespread use of smartphones, romantic couples can connect with their partners from virtually anywhere, at any time. Remote communication may be particularly important to long-distance relationships (LDRs), compared to geographically close relationships (GCRs). The goals of the current research were to examine differences between LDRs and GCRs in (1) the patterns of remote communication (video calls, voice calls, and texting), and (2) how frequency and responsiveness of remote communication are related to relationship satisfaction. Data were drawn from an online survey of emerging adults ( n = 647) who were in a relationship or dating someone (36.5% were in an LDR). Participants in LDRs engaged in more frequent video calling, voice calling and texting, compared to those in GCRs. Long-distance relationship participants also perceived their partners to be more responsive during video and voice calls, compared to GCR participants. More frequent and responsive texting predicted significantly greater relationship satisfaction among participants in LDRs, but not GCRs. Meanwhile, frequency of voice calls was associated with greater relationship satisfaction in GCRs, but not in LDRs. The use of video calls was not significantly related to relationship satisfaction in either group. Overall, study findings add to a growing literature on remote communication in romantic couples and suggest a uniquely positive role of texting within LDRs. Further research is needed to examine the ways in which LDR and GCR couples can best capitalize on different forms of remote technology to maintain their relationships during periods of separation.
... Similarly, Granovetter (1973) explains that social relationships with multiple interactions characterized by higher levels of trust and reciprocity are seen as strong ties. SNSs enable more frequent message exchanges with a set of contacts (Tong & Walther, 2011). Repeated social exchanges are more likely in SNSs than in face-to-face relationships because time is compressed, interactions are accelerated, and individuals become more accessible (Baym, 2010). ...
... Furthermore, relational social capital online shows a greater influence on ATE than relational social capital offline. There are more repeated social exchanges between individuals in SNSs than in offline relationships (Baym, 2010;Tong & Walther, 2011), which allows them to develop more trust, reciprocity, and identification (Blau, 1964). Individuals can thus maintain relationships through SNSs more easily than in the offline context (Ellison et al., 2014) and, ultimately, can influence their attitude toward entrepreneurial exchanges to a greater extent. ...
Entrepreneurial intention is a key research question in entrepreneurship. Previous studies have proven the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain entrepreneurial intention. Scholars have thus focused on analyzing factors to develop the three antecedents of TPB, one of which is social capital. However, research has barely considered social capital online. We extend research by exploring the effect of social capital on these antecedents and on entrepreneurial intention, and by analyzing the differences in these influences between social capital online and offline. Using partial least squares and commonality analysis for 587 individuals in Spain, we find that social capital influences these antecedents and entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, social capital online has a greater effect in attitude toward entrepreneurship, a similar effect on perceived behavioral control, and a lesser effect on social norms than social capital offline. Finally, social capital online has a greater influence on entrepreneurial intention than social capital offline.
JEL CLASSIFICATION: M1 Business Administration, M13 New Firms • Startups
... Similar to how smartphones and social media have altered how relationships are formed and maintained (Tong and Walther, 2011), they have also re-shaped ways of how they end. An infamous example of a relationship dissolution strategy that is based on expectancy violations is ghosting. ...
Ghosting (i.e., terminating communication with another person on social media without explanation) has become an all-too-common occurrence. Prior scholarship has predominantly focused on adverse effects of being ghosted on individuals’ well-being and mainly investigated the phenomenon within romantic relationships. By contrast, its occurrence within friendships as well as psychological predictors and effects of ghosting others over time with regard to well-being are not comprehensively understood yet. The present study aims to fill these research gaps using data from a two-wave panel survey among emerging adults between 16 and 21 years. Analyses show that ghosting romantic partners and ghosting friends are different phenomena: While communication overload (i.e., the feeling of receiving more messages than one can handle) positively predicts ghosting romantic partners, ghosting friends is predicted by one's self-esteem. Most notably, ghosting others within romantic relationships did not yield any effects on well-being, whereas ghosting friends increased depressive tendencies over time, demonstrating that ghosting is not only harmful to those who are ghosted, but can also negatively impact those who ghost others.
... Communicative activities have been shown to increase relationship quality and positive affect during regular times (Chan, 2015(Chan, , 2018. Due to the affordances of smartphones (e.g., perpetual connectivity and communication possibilities; Mascheroni & Vincent, 2016), communicative use can further enhance social interactions and add an additional layer to relationship maintenance (Tong & Walther, 2011), reinforcing friendships and providing mediated social support (Chan & Li, 2020). ...
Due to 'stay-at-home' measures, individuals increasingly relied on smartphones for social connection and for obtaining information about the COVID-19 pandemic. In a two-wave panel survey (N T2 = 416), we investigated associations between different types of smartphone use (i.e., communicative and non-communicative), friendship satisfaction, and anxiety during the first lockdown in Austria. Our findings revealed that communicative smartphone use increased friendship satisfaction over time, validating how smart-phones can be a positive influence in difficult times. Friendship satisfaction decreased anxiety after one month, signaling the importance of strong friendship networks during the crisis. Contrary to our expectations, non-communicative smartphone use had no effects on friendship satisfaction or anxiety over time. Reciprocal effects showed that anxiety increased both types of smartphone use over time. These findings are discussed in the context of mobile media effects related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rooted in African postcolonial pragmatics, this research pays particular attention to the strategic use of code-switching and other linguistic strategies for relationship maintenance in instant messaging communities that constitute translanguaging spaces. To this end, by means of a quantitative and computer-mediated communication discourse analysis, we examine the naturally-occurring interactions, on WhatsApp, of a group of 74 former university classmates who studied Spanish Philology in the mid-2000s at a Cameroonian university. The close observation of the group’s interactional strategies for relationship maintenance shows that members construct their online famille – their new social space for self-presentation – by means of (1) sociolinguistic and pragmatic norms drawn from indigenisation; (2) kinship terms as forms of address, in English and Spanish in texts mainly in French; and (3) the inclusion of religious terms as a politeness strategy. The use of Spanish as the tie-sign of the group is not as relevant as initially expected.
BACKGROUND: In recent years, social media has surged in popularity and affected every facet of people’s lives from the office environment to leisure time by transforming their lifestyles and influencing well-being. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of social networking usage on the subjective well-being of users by first determining the key gratifications that motivate them to use social networking sites by applying the uses and gratification theory, and then focusing on psychological outcomes such as social capital that affect their subjective well-being. METHOD: The data were collected from 400 students of reputed universities in North India by adopting a judgemental sampling technique. RESULTS: Results indicated that key gratifications such as entertainment, tension release, personal integration, information seeking, emotional connection and socialization played a significant role in social networking usage. Moreover, social networking usage had a significant impact on bonding social capital, bridging social capital and subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, results showed that bonding social capital, and bridging social capital could significantly mediate the relationship between social networking usage and subjective well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Social networking usage has the potential to promote social capital and subjective well-being by addressing the fundamental needs of users in life.
Participants (N = 312) in romantic relationships completed an online survey to determine common integrated phone activities, motivations for integrating phones into time together, and whether phone integration is associated with relationship satisfaction. The most frequent activities included showing social media posts, photos, and videos; showing texts; and involving the partner in video calls. Primary motivations for integrating phones into partners’ co-present time were enjoyment, psychological inclusion, phubbing avoidance, transparency, and habitual use. Findings indicate that participants were often intentional in integrating the phone into co-present time, and frequency of joint involvement with the phone was associated with relationship satisfaction.
İşletmelerin kurulum sürecinde ihtiyaç duyulan fonun temini, girişimciler için önemli bir sınırlılık oluşturmaktadır. Bu soruna alteratif bir çözüm olarak ortaya çıkan ve yakın gelecekte önemli bir fonlama sistemi olma potansiyeline sahip kitlesel fonlama, bu araştırmanın konusunu oluşturmuştur. Araştırmada hem sosyal hem de ekonomik girişimlerin fonlanması için yeni bir yöntem olan kitlesel fonlamanın başarısında, sosyal sermayenin etkileri incelenmiştir. Doktora tezinden türetilen bu araştırmada kitlesel fonlamada başarılı bir fonlamaya ulaşılabilmesi için gerekli hususların aydınlatılması amaçlanmıştır. Bu çalışma yazında konuyla ilgili nitel ağırlıkta olan sonuçların, nicel olarak test edilmesi temeline dayanmaktadır. Bu kapsamda Türkiye’de girişimi için ihtiyaç duyduğu fonu toplamak amacıyla proje yayınlamış ödül ve bağış bazlı 251 kitlesel fonlama proje sahibine anket uygulanmıştır. Hedef fonuna ulaşabilen projeler başarılı, ulaşamayanlar ise başarısız olarak kodlanmıştır. Çevrimiçi bir girişim fonlaması süreci olan kitlesel fonlama, sosyal sermayenin yine çevrimiçi boyutuna odaklanan çevrimiçi sosyal sermaye kapsamında ele alınmıştır. Gelecekte başarılı projelere ulaşmak için gerekliliklerin ortaya konulması amacıyla araştırma modeli, sinyal teorisi çerçevesinde incelenmiştir. Bağımsız değişken olarak ele alınan çevrimiçi sosyal sermayenin aracı ve dayanışmacı boyutlarının, başarıyı yordadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca cinsiyet ve eğitim durumunun da kitlesel fonlama başarısı üzerinde etkili olduğu görülmüştür.
In this work, we challenge the assumption that weak ties play uniquely important social support roles on social network sites, particularly regarding informational support. To overcome methodological limitations of earlier research, we present a mixed-methods study. Forty-one participants were interviewed and asked to identify five weak, medium, and strong ties each and to report on perceived and actually received social support (emotional, informational, instrumental, and appraisal) associated with each. Complicating traditional understandings of “the strength of weak ties,” the qualitative analyses of actual support events show that both emotional and informational support is provided by strong ties. In an additional quantitative between-subjects study design, 352 participants were asked about various aspects of a weak, medium, or strong tie. These results indicate that participants valued their strong ties more regarding every form of support. Although there were only weak correlations between perceived and recalled actually received support, people also report actual support events with strong ties to be more helpful—overall suggesting the strength of strong ties.
Equity theory is a social psychological theory concerned with justice in all interpersonal relationships. Until recently, however, equity principles have been examined only in casual role relations (i.e., employer-employee, philanthropist-recipient, and harmer-victim relations) and have not been examined in more personal relations (see Walster (Hatfield), Walster, & Berscheid, 1978). The distinction between role relationships and personal relationships is a long-standing and important one (see Cooley, 1902; Tonnies, 1887). Given the importance of primary, intimate relations, it would be a grave omission to overlook such relations in theory and research on interpersonal behavior.
This thought-provoking volume offers an innovative and intriguing approach to the study of long-distance relationships. Author Laura Stafford examines romantic long-distance relationships and then expands the conception of long-distance relationships to include other relational types. She summarizes literature across the social sciences on various types of long-distance relationships and extracts themes and patterns across the relational types. In so doing, she reconsiders approaches to and offers an expanded vision of relational maintenance. By expanding her scope beyond romantic relationships, Stafford includes those that span residences and relational types, such as noncustodial parent-child and geographically and residentially separated adult children and parents. She contends that face-to-face interaction is not necessary to maintain healthy relationships, and questions the assumption that maintaining, rather than terminating, a particular relationship is always best for the involved parties. With its interdisciplinary approach to challenging commonly held assumptions about communication and close relationships, Maintaining Long-Distance and Cross-Residential Relationships will be engaging reading for scholars in communication, psychology, sociology, mass communication, and family studies. It is also appropriate for special topics graduate courses on long-distance relationships and human communication, and will serve as a unique supplemental text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in interpersonal, relational, and family communication and family studies. © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.