When More Information Does not Help: The Connection between Facebook Monitoring Behavior, Relationship Uncertainty, and Relationship Quality

This study examines the connection between relationship uncertainty, relationship satisfaction, and Facebook monitoring activity. We hypothesized that (1) people who monitor a romantic partner’s Facebook activity will also report feeling less satisfied in their current relationship, (2) increased monitoring of Facebook will correlate with greater uncertainty in romantic relationships, and that (3) greater uncertainty in a relationship will adversely affect relationship quality. Using an online survey taken by a volunteer sample of 77 participants across the United States, we found support for these hypotheses. WHEN MORE INFORMATION DOES NOT HELP 3 When More Information Does not Help: The Connection between Facebook Monitoring Behavior, Relationship Uncertainty, and Relationship Quality Interpersonal relationships are central to the human experience. Communication, then, becomes necessary due to the social nature of humankind. With exceptional ease we can now instantly communicate with almost anyone, anywhere. For example, as of the third quarter of 2015, Facebook had 1.55 billion active users, defined as those who logged on at least once in the past 30 days (Facebook: Monthly active users). Although past research on the connection between social media use and interpersonal relationship quality has been conducted, such knowledge is easily dated because of the rapid development in ways of communicating via social media (compare, for example, Baym, Yan Bing, Kunkel, Ledbetter, & Lin, 2007). The ever-changing dynamics between technology and interpersonal relationships need to be closely examined and updated frequently to match the rate of technological innovation, which is constantly evolving. The Reduction of Uncertainty in Interpersonal Relationships Within the study of interpersonal relationships, an important question is how we build and maintain our relationships. According to Uncertainty Reduction Theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975), we seek out information about our relational partners and potential partners in order to become more confident in the trajectory of the relationship. In practicing this ritual of predicting our partner’s behavior and making sense of them as people through disclosures, we become more intimate over time (as cited in Antheunis et al., 2009; Antheunis et al., 2012; Ayres, 1979; Knobloch & Solomon, 2002; Theiss and Solomon, 2008; Yang et al., 2014). This process of disclosure and discovery of information builds intimacy. Intimacy is essential to the WHEN MORE INFORMATION DOES NOT HELP 4 development of healthy interpersonal relationships as the foundation for trust, conflict management, and relational satisfaction (Theiss & Solomon, 2008). However, the desire for uncertainty reduction can motivate surveillance of current romantic partners, as an attempt at relational maintenance to keep intimacy intact. Uncertainty reduction is an important component of relational maintenance (Stewart et al., 2014). Of course, relational maintenance, or efforts to keep relationships in a preferred state of satisfaction, is key to relational quality. Early disclosures in intimate relationships can be superficial and unreliable (Yang et al., 2014). However, over time partners seek and disclose more deeply, asking and sharing more intimate questions that are evaluative rather than descriptive (Ayres, 1979). In this way, intimacy corresponds to not just a revealing of trivial information such as what someone did that day, but how that person feels about their experiences. Thus, one could assume that such information is valuable to relational partners, and they might find a variety of ways to obtain it. To discover information of increasing depth, people engage in passive, active, and interactive tactics (Antheunis et al., 2009; Antheunis et al., 2012; Theiss & Solomon, 2008). Passive tactics involve unobtrusive observation, while active tactics require interaction with someone who has information about the party in question. Finally, interactive methods rely on direct interactions with the person in question. Social media use can involve all three of these ways of reducing uncertainty, although they probably lend themselves most easily to passive, unobtrusive observation. Social Media Use and Uncertainty Reduction in Intimate Relationships The study of computer mediated communication, or CMC, is increasingly necessary in a world where mediums for communication are expanding. A particular facet of CMC is social WHEN MORE INFORMATION DOES NOT HELP 5 network sites or SNSs. SNSs can include sites like Facebook and MySpace, as well as online dating sites, such as Tinder (Sheldon, 2008). SNSs have overwhelmingly become a part of everyday life and communication for most people. Indeed, “74% of single adults seeking romantic relationships have used an online dating service” (Ramirez et al., 2014, p. 99). Some interpersonal motivations for using social media include staying in touch with friends and family, as well as meeting new people (Antheunis et al., 2009; Sheldon, 2008). Social connections also can decrease loneliness, drawing many people online (Yang et al., 2014). People also use social media for emotional release, interpersonal relationship development or maintenance, to reinforce personal identity, and to conduct surveillance on others (Sheldon, 2008). This suggests that users are motivated to use social media because they are motivated to make disclosures. Furthermore, SNSs play an important role as platforms for uncertainty reduction about others. According to one college student, “Facebook has become our social Bible for definitive information on our classmates, crushes, and high school peers” (As quoted by Sheldon, 2008, p. 41). Because so many people utilize SNSs to meet new people and then engage in uncertainty reduction practices, social media presents a unique platform for self-representation. For example, on sites like Facebook, users are invited to create a profile often containing intimate information about themselves such as religious background and sexual preference. However, the broadcasting nature of these sites sterilizes these potentially intimate disclosures. Users not only engage in the trivialization of disclosure through status updates about their pets and posting photos of their food, but simultaneously employ intimate self expression tactics to relieve emotional stress through disclosure. WHEN MORE INFORMATION DOES NOT HELP 6 Many SNS users are motivated to be highly selective about their self-presentation (Ramirez et al., 2014; Gibbs, Ellison, & Lai, 2011). Particularly on online dating sites, there is a motivation to be perceived in a flattering light in order to receive self-affirmation but also because the goal is to eventually meet face to face and develop a romantic relationship. Ramirez et al. (2014), asserts that most people do not blatantly lie on SNSs, but still engage in a certain degree of dishonesty about themselves to appear more attractive as a relational partner. Ramirez et al. found that users expect a degree of dishonesty and people that were too honest on online dating sites were seen as asking for too much intimacy, too soon. In addition, relational partners who met online had to meet face to face relatively quickly, at which time uncertainty reduction would take place because of the disclosure of their “real” personality and appearance etc. If they failed to quickly meet face to face, their online personas would become too real for their partners to overcome and uncertainty would increase upon meeting. Moreover, college students assert that they can’t really know someone just by looking at their Facebook and that the information is often unreliable (Yang et al., 2014). Online profiles are “more selective, malleable, and subject to self-censorship” and “encourage individuals to experiment with new forms of representation that vastly diverge from their ‘real life’ identities” (Gibbs et al., 2006, p. 153). Although the 2006 Gibbs et al. study found that people were more honest in their direct disclosures to others if they anticipated meeting face to face, no such evidence was found to support such honesty in profiles overall. Additionally, people in this study refused to admit that they misrepresented themselves online but contradictorily asserted that they felt that the majority of people were somewhat dishonest online. According to Sheldon (2008), users say things electronically that they would never say in person, making inauthentic disclosures, and take on personas that are not representative of their real personalities. WHEN MORE INFORMATION DOES NOT HELP 7 Social Media Use and Relationship Quality Although social media can be a place to build relationships, its connection to relationship quality seems somewhat tentative. For example, Fox et al. (2014) found that “participants almost universally described Facebook as having negative effects on romantic relationships. ” However, research by Stewart et al. (2014) suggests that Facebook either plays no relational maintenance role amongst partners that are already well acquainted, or that SNSs can sometimes play a negative role in romantic relationships. Regardless, it is certain that “Facebook is likely changing the way people develop, maintain, and dissolve romantic relationships” (Fox et al., 2014, p. 533). Because it is unclear whether SNSs build relational quality through disclosures or impede it and so many relationships begin and are in some way maintained online where relational attraction is developed, it is important to understand how the use of Facebook and similar SNSs might impact relational quality via uncertainty reduction tactics. In this study, we examine the effects that social media use, specifically the monitoring of another’s Facebook activity, has on relational quality. This is an important topic to research because, as previously discussed, Facebook is increasingly becoming a central means fo