Page 134 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

and such reliance might lead to excessive SNS use or addiction (Sheldon, Abad, & Hinsch, 2011). Thus, SNS use might be helpful for sojourners in dealing with homesickness and adjustment; however, they must be aware of the potential negative implications when SNS is used to solve social difficulties.
Part Two: Specific Relational Context - Romantic Relationship
The last two empirical chapters (Chapters 4 and 5) aimed to contribute to the literature by investigating the relevance of SNS in a more intimate relational context, i.e., a romantic relationship. The studies presented in these chapters were based on the assertion that SNSs affordances may be relatively more relevant in romantic relationship maintenance for couples who are geographically separated. Long-distance romantic relationships (LDRR) often require more effort to maintain compared to geographically-close romantic relationships (GCRR) (Aylor, 2003). Distance, and its inevitable consequence of limited physical togetherness, is considered a threat to the survival of romantic relationships (Mok, Wellman, & Basu, 2007). However, communication processes may mitigate the impact of distance (Dindia, 2003). Thus, it was relevant to investigate how new forms of CMC, such as SNS, might impact relational adjustment of sojourners who are geographically separated from their romantic partners. The focus on SNS was important because this communication platform is unique from other forms of CMC. SNSs provide a public and a social context for interaction between partners and their social network, allowing couples to experience and share social processes that are not possible with interpersonal forms of CMC (Tong & Walther, 2011; Utz & Beukeboom, 2011).
Chapter 4: SNS use for Romantic Relationship Maintenance
Key finding 6: Sojourners in LDRR were more likely than individuals in GCRR to use SNS for relationship maintenance; particularly by using SNS to express their involvement and to gauge their partner’s involvement in the relationship.
Chapter 4 covers a study that investigated the relevance of SNSs in romantic relationship maintenance among international sojourners who are in LDRR. The roles of other forms of CMC, such as e-mail, texting, instant messaging, and video chat, have been previously investigated (Jiang & Hancock, 2008; Rintel, 2013; Tong & Walther, 2011). However, no studies have looked specifically into
132 Chapter 6