Page 91 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

Long-distance romantic relationships (LDRR) are defined as relationships in which geographic distance limits daily physical togetherness between partners and prevents them from being with each other as much as they would like (Pistole & Roberts, 2011). Geographic distance is a challenge to relationship maintenance. LDRR require more effort to maintain than geographically close romantic relationships (GCRR) (Aylor, 2003).
In GCRR, computer-mediated communication (CMC) is used as a supplement to face-to-face communication to maintain the relationship (Rabby & Walther, 2003). In LDRR, the use of CMC is more urgent: geographic separation requires partners to use a technological medium to communicate and sustain the relationship (Stephen, 1986).
Among the various forms of CMC, social networking sites (SNS) play an increasingly important role in maintaining relationships (Papp, Danielewicz, & Cayemberg, 2012). Facebook is the most popular SNS, with 1.5 billion users and five new accounts being created every second (Noyes, 2013). Recently, there has been an increase in research investigating the implications of SNS for romantic relationships. These studies are generally on GCRR (Clayton, Nagurney, & Smith, 2013; Craig & Wright, 2012; Dainton, 2013; Darvell, Walsh, & White, 2011; Emery, Muise, Dix, & Le, 2014; Fox & Warber, 2013; Hand, Thomas, Buboltz, Deemer, & Buyanjargal, 2013; Marshall, Bejanyan, Di Castro, & Lee, 2012; McEwan, 2013; Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009; Papp et al., 2012; Saslow, Muise, Impett, & Dubin, 2013; Stewart, Dainton, & Goodboy, 2014; Tokunaga, 2011; Utz & Beukeboom, 2011). Moreover, studies investigating the role of CMC in LDRR have often been limited to private, direct interpersonal communication, such as e-mail, texting, instant messaging, and video chat (Jiang & Hancock, 2013; Johnson, Haigh, Becker, Craig, & Wigley, 2008; Rintel, 2013). To the authors’ knowledge, no study has directly investigated the use of SNS in LDRR. In the current study, the role of SNS in relationship maintenance was investigated by comparing SNS use in GCRR and LDRR.
Examining SNS use in romantic relationships is important because it allows public communication between partners. Other forms of CMCs used in romantic relationships are often limited to private, direct interpersonal communication (e.g., video chat, texting, instant messaging, and e-mail) (Jiang & Hancock, 2013). SNS combine these features (e.g., synchronous and asynchronous, public and private, narrow and wide bandwidth) and make it possible to interact in interpersonal and social contexts. The social context of SNS provides indirect communication and
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