Page 106 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

relationship presentation, and open up their relationship to a social network for possible scrutiny and evaluation (Tong & Walther, 2011; Utz & Beukeboom, 2011). When people connect with family and friends on SNSs, they may make relationship-related information “public”. According to Tong and Walther (2011), it is the combination of having private and public communications in platforms like SNSs that has the potential to transform the way people maintain relationships. The private and public aspects of SNSs make relational maintenance not just an interpersonal process between couples, but also a social process that involves the social network of both partners.
So far, studies on the social aspects of SNSs use in romantic relationships focused on two types of impacts: First, the impact of SNSs public, indirect communication (e.g., browsing the partner’s SNSs wall) on couple members themselves (Fox & Warber, 2013; Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009; Tokunaga, 2010; Utz & Beukeboom, 2011) and, second, the impact of SNSs relationship public presentation (e.g., SNSs display of relationship status, couple profile pictures, relationship-related status updates) on couple members themselves (Papp, Danielewicz, & Cayemberg, 2012; Saslow, Muise, Impett, & Dubin, 2013), and on couple’s social network members (Emery, Muise, Alpert, & Le, 2015). These studies point to the value of SNSs use in romantic relationships involving not only the couples but also members of their social networks. This could prove particularly relevant for those in LDRR, considering that they might have geographically separated social networks, or one of them is away from their established support networks (Weiner & Hannum, 2012). In GCRR, relationship- related social network processes on SNSs might play a supplementary role to offline processes (Tong &Walther, 2011). In this current study, we aimed to extend research by clarifying the relevance of SNSs in LDRR and GCRR on account of relationship support from couples’ social networks.
Social network perspective on relationship support
A social network perspective on romantic relationships is based on the premise that romantic couples do not exist in a (social) vacuum, and that couples’ social networks have a substantial influence on the outcome of the relationship (Felmlee, 2001). Social networks may play a facilitative or inhibitory role in relationship stability, as well as closeness and intimacy (Cox et al., 1997; Felmlee, 2001). There are three ways by which social networks may benefit relationship quality (Felmlee, 2001): Via network approval, network support, and network embeddedness.
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