Page 124 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment
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                                relationship satisfaction, suggest that the use of these communication technologies in GCRR might not necessarily help the relationship. This is a provocative idea considering previous propositions that communication technologies may play supplementary roles in GCRR (Rabby & Walther, 2003; Tong & Walther, 2011). Future studies should explore this idea further.
Our results demonstrate the relative importance of SNSs for relational maintenance compared with other communication technologies. These observations highlight the need for further investigations on the concurrent use and interplay of different communication technologies in romantic relationships (Caughlin & Sharabi, 2013).
Limitations and Recommendations
This current study was limited by measuring only the positive aspects of network influence. We did not look at the “dark” side of network influence via SNSs (e.g., supplying negative information about the partner, expressing disapproval about the relationship, etc.) (Felmlee, 2001). Moreover, we focused on SNSs relationship support from the perspective of those in romantic relationships, and did not include the point of view of social network members. Keneski and Loving (2014) underscored the relevance of getting social network members’ reports of actual relationship appraisal and support to broaden the understanding of this social dynamic. We recommend that these conceptualizations of network roles be considered in future studies.
We also focused on Facebook as an exemplar for SNSs because of its popularity. We recommend for future studies to investigate other SNSs to examine the generalizability of our findings. We also recommend to include both relationship partners and do a dyadic level analysis. This design could contribute to a more nuanced characterization of LDRR (e.g., those who leave vs. those who stay). It is also important to consider individual level moderators that are important in romantic relationships (e.g., attachment styles, personality traits, self-esteem, neuroticism, etc.).
We recommend for future studies to have a larger sample and a more balanced sampling of LDRR and GCRR participants in terms of number and time of measurement. With the relatively small sample size for LDRR participants, the results of this current study should be taken with caution. Other studies should replicate these findings in larger samples to examine their robustness. Additionally, although we dealt with the issue of measurement invariance, we cannot fully
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