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Social Media And
Relationships
Why Do People Show Off Their
Relationships on Social Media?
New research explores how posting about your
relationship may protect it
Social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram, allow us
to not only tell the world about ourselves, but also to tell the world about
our romantic relationships.
People often state their relationship status in their
social media profile, use a photo with their partner as a profile photo, and
post photos and updates that mention their romantic partners.
People who engage in these common types of social
media relationship displays tend to be more satisfied with their relationships.
However, these displays aren't necessarily entirely about
connecting with your partner.
Certain types of displays may involve overcompensating
for a less satisfying relationship, and people may also post about their
relationships as a way to show
off to others.
New research by Kori Krueger and Amanda Forest
explores another motive underlying these displays: protecting your relationship
from outside threats.
There are two ways that displaying your relationship on
social media can protect it:
1.
Social media gives
you the opportunity to interact with a large network of people, some of whom
could be potential alternative romantic partners for you. By having a couple
profile photo and posting about your relationship, you are signaling to others
that you're taken.
2.
Social media also
gives your partner that same opportunity. By displaying your
relationship online, you're also signaling to potential romantic rivals that
your partner is taken.
Thus, these relationship displays prevent you from being
tempted to stray, and make it less likely that your partner will be
tempted as well.
Krueger and Forest conducted two studies to help
understand how these relationship-protection motives can explain why we post
about our relationships.
In the first study, they surveyed 236 Facebook users who
were currently involved in a romantic relationship.
They assessed how much they displayed their relationships
on social media (e.g., having a coupled relationship status, using a couple
photo as a profile photo, posting updates or photos that included their
partner).
They also asked participants the extent to which they used
social media as a way to protect their relationship, by indicating how much
they agreed with statements like "I want to discourage any romantic or
sexual interest from others" and "I want to avoid someone else
potentially stealing my romantic partner from me."
Like past research, they found that people who shared
their relationships online did in fact report stronger feelings of connection
to their partner.
However, they also found that relationship-protective
motives were connected with relationship sharing, above and beyond these
feelings of connectedness.
The first study showed that people often display their
relationships on social media as a way to avoid romantic advances from other
people.
But do those potential suitors get the hint? In a second
study, the researchers explored how other people perceive
these romantic displays.
In an experiment, the researchers presented 224
participants with a Facebook profile they created, that supposedly belonged to
a person of the gender the participant
indicated they preferred to date.
For half of the participants, the profile clearly
displayed that the person was involved in a romantic relationship, by including
a coupled relationship status, a couple profile photo, and a status update that
mentioned the romantic partner.
The other half of the participants viewed a similar
profile, but without the relationship information.
Compared to participants who viewed a profile without
relationship displays, those who viewed the profile containing these displays
were more likely to perceive that that person was in a good relationship and
was unreceptive to romantic advances from other people.
In addition, these perceptions that the person was
unreceptive to romantic advances led to a lower likelihood that the participant
would try to flirt with or get closer to
them.
This shows that relationship displays really do protect
your relationship from others who might be romantically interested in either
you or your partner.
One interesting question that the researchers did not
address is who is more likely to have these relationship-protective
motives.
For example, people who worried about their partner
leaving them or people who are generally anxious might be
particularly likely to try to signal to others that their partner is taken.
In fact, other research has shown that worry about a partner's
loyalty can prompt social media relationship displays. On the other hand,
people who see themselves as particularly desirable might be
especially likely to project a "hands off" message on social media,
especially if they're highly committed to their partner.
So perhaps both greater insecurity and greater
security can prompt people to use social media to protect their
relationships.
This research shows that showing off
your relationships on social media serves two purposes:
1) feeling more connected to your
partner, and
2) protecting your relationship from
others who might be interested in pursuing either you or your partner.
Online: Webpage at Albright College, Twitter
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