EXAMINING FACEBOOK JEALOUSY 18
Facebook Jealousy: Examining the Effects of Facebook on Adult Romantic Relationships
Rachel Cave
Longwood University
Table of Contents
Abstract3
Acknowledgments4
Introduction5
Review of Literature6
Theoretical Grounding6
Uncertainty Reduction Theory6
Social Information Processing Theory7
Popularity of Social Networking Sites7
How Users are Perceived on Facebook10
“Facebook Stalking”10
Defining Jealousy in Relationships13
Dating Relationships vs. Married Relationships13
Reasons Behind Jealousy13
Facebook Jealousy14
Methodology16
Results17
Supplemental Analysis18
Discussion18
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research20
Conclusion21
References22
Appendix: Survey Questions24
Abstract
Facebook is a popular social networking site that was originally created for young adults in college. Throughout the years, Facebook has expanded to encompass more age groups including high school students and older adult users. Prior research on young adult Facebook users suggests that Facebook creates jealousy in these young adult user’s relationships. With this prior knowledge, the purpose of this study was to explore the role that Facebook has in adult romantic relationships and determine if the use of Facebook creates jealousy in these relationships as it does for young adults. For this study 135 adults aged 30 and above completed an online survey that evaluated demographic and personal information as well as factors that may contribute to jealousy due to Facebook use. Results indicated that Facebook does not have a strong effect on relationship jealousy in adults aged 30 and above. Reasons for these results may include that the motives for adults using Facebook differ from the motives that young adult users have for using Facebook.
Keywords: Facebook, jealousy, romantic relationships
Acknowledgements
This study is dedicated to George and Cathy Cave for their love and support throughout the entirety of my college career. I would like to thank the Communication Studies department at Longwood University for giving me the skills and knowledge needed to complete this project and whose support and guidance have helped me gain a better understanding and appreciation of my research. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their continued support and encouragement in the completion of this study.
Facebook Jealousy: Examining the Effects of Facebook on Adult Romantic Relationships
Through the years Facebook has been becoming more popular and obtaining more users. According to a TIME article, “More than 1 in 4 people who browse the Internet not only have a Facebook account but have returned to the site within the past 30 days” (Fletcher, 2010). Due to this popularity, much research has been done regarding Facebook’s effects on users, why people use Facebook, how people portray themselves on Facebook, and what types of information a user typically shares. This research mostly focuses on the younger demographic from high school to college aged students. However, the demographic of Facebook is growing. According to Fletcher, 28 percent of Facebook users are older than 34 (Fletcher, 2010). More parents are logging onto Facebook to be “friends” with their children and to catch up with old friends of their own.
As stated previously, there have been many studies regarding Facebook use, but there is not much research about how a social network such as Facebook can create jealousy amongst people in committed relationships. With the overload of personal information that Facebook makes public, jealously could have an effect on users and in fact has been proven to affect young adult users as found in research by Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais (2009).
The purpose of this study is to reveal if the jealousy that Facebook can create is mainly focused on the younger demographic of teenagers and college aged students or if older adults in committed romantic relationships are also affected. This is important because it will expand on research that has already been completed on this topic by expanding the age range of Facebook users and see if findings from previous studies apply in different age brackets. My interest in this topics stems from the rise in numbers of people using Facebook and the different Facebook applications that are available to users that may allow for potential jealous feelings to arise between romantic partners. I will extend this discussion by highlighting the theoretical and philosophical influences in this study related to social media, jealousy, and Facebook use. The two theories that guided this study are the uncertainty reduction theory and the social informational processing theory.
Review of Literature
Theoretical Grounding
Uncertainty Reduction Theory
The uncertainty reduction theory by Charles Berger focuses on how the way people communicate with each other and how that communication is used in order to obtain knowledge and form a better understanding of others to create a relationship with someone (Griffin, 2008). This theory helps explain the connection between uncertainty and the developments of a relationship through different axioms.
Berger explains eight axioms related to initial uncertainty in relationships. The axioms are verbal communication, nonverbal warmth, information seeking, self-disclosure, reciprocity, similarity, liking, and shared networks. The information-seeking axiom states “high levels of uncertainty cause increases in information-seeking behavior. As uncertainty levels decline, information-seeking behavior decreases” (Griffin, 2008)
When Facebook users see something suspicious such as pictures posted from a previous relationship or when an ex-partner posts something on their partners Facebook profile, he or she may feel the need to investigate the issue further (“Facebook ‘creates jealousy,’” 2009). Because of this, not only can one suspicious picture potentially cause feelings of jealousy, but also those feelings can allow for that person to continue delving into their partner’s life and continue searching for things that may not exist outside of Facebook.
Social Information Processing Theory
Computer mediated communication (CMC) filters out many of the nonverbal cues that are present in face-to-face communication. Due to this, the social information processing theory by Joseph Walther explains how CMC can have an effect on communication between users.
The cues-filtered-out theory of social information processing argues that communication that is text-based does not have the same cues face-to-face communication does which allows for uninhibited behaviors (Kim, 2000). Because of this, communication through internet sites such as Facebook does not allow for vocal tones, expression and gestures to be seen or heard and can cause conflict or confusion between romantic partners. And, as Kim (2000) states, “Computer mediated communication lacks shared social norms and standards. It can lead users to be more aggressive and impulsive” (para. 2). This theory can provide evidence as to why such feelings of jealousy may arise in Facebook users. Important verbal cues are missing when reading a comment or seeing a picture on Facebook that can create mixed messages.
Popularity of Social Networking Sites
A study by researchers Urista, Dong, and Day (2008) was conducted to explain why young adults use social networking sites. Through their research, they discovered that there were five main themes that arose as to why young adults are using social networking sites to fulfill their needs. These five themes were efficient communication, convenient communication, curiosity about others, popularity, and relationship formation and reinforcement.
Social networking sites allow users to disperse messages to many people at one time which are one of the reasons they have become so popular. Social networking sites (SNS) allow for members to talk and share information with someone without having a face-to-face or phone conversation with them and simply posting on their Facebook or other social networking site. One participant in a study done by Urista et. al. (2008) was quoted as saying “SNS allow members to attain others’ attention quickly and efficiently with one single bulletin” (p. 13). The efficiency and quickness of communication that can be accomplished through SNS is as prime reason for its popularity.
SNS also make communication more convenient. Being able to stay in touch with all of one’s family and friends with a simple online website is very appealing to most users. Also, some types of communication such as face-to-face require people to respond immediately while SNS allows users to communicate at a manner and speed in which they prefer. Many users have found SNS to be convenient because it allows for them to see what their friends or families are doing without having to take the time to meet with them or call them on the phone (Urista et. al., 2008; Madge, Meek, Wellens and Hooley 2009).
Along the same lines of using SNS to see what friends and family are doing, another popular reason for SNS is users being able to fulfill their curiosity about others. Many SNS users have admitted that they use SNS to obtain information about people they would like to know more about such as potential romantic partners, new friends, or people they would simply like to know better (Urista et. al., 2008). This is easy with SNS because the accessibility to the information has become very simple and quick. Each member on Facebook has their own personal profile where they can update information on where they live, work, their hobbies, and interests. With the use of SNS, users can find future classmates, roommates, of potential romantic partners and see if they could be compatible. Using these sites allows people to pre-judge others to see if they have anything in common by viewing their pictures, videos, and other friends.
Another common theme in the rise of SNS was the popularity that others who use SNS can obtain. The number of friends a user has along with the number of pictures can increase a young adult user’s popularity. For example, friends may compare the number of comments they have on their pictures or the number of friends they have of Facebook with their other friends because the more comments or friends one has, makes them more popular (Urista et. al., 2008; Madgea et. al., 2009). However, Madge et. al., (2009) also found that after the first stages of simply wanting to have a lot of friends on Facebook, users started to use it mainly to talk with their current friends and keep in touch with old friends.
The last of the five main themes to why social networking sites have become so popular is relationship formation and reinforcement. According to Urista et. al., (2008) many of the participants in the research said that they use the various SNS to find out more information about someone they met in real life, which is similar to the curiosity aspect, but in this theme, the user looks for the person’s information with the intent of forming a more meaningful relationship with them. These SNS allow for more occasions for people to talk to each other and get to know each other which allows for the relationship to become stronger between those people (Madge et. al., 2009). SNS gives users the ability to further strengthen their current relationships with their friends as well as try and build new ones. Users also use SNS to reinforce the relationships they already have. They do this by seeing who replies to their posts, remembers their birthday, and keeps in contact with them through the years (Urista et. al., 2008).
These five reasons that were found as to why SNS are popular were derived from a study focused on a younger demographic. It is possible that some of these reasons for popularity do not fit with SNS users in an older demographic but it does give a good basis for how SNS began their rise in popularity and their continuance and growth with older generations.
How Users are Perceived on Facebook
It has been discussed that users of SNS enjoy the easy accessibility and power they have to view other friends and users online. Walther, Van Der Heide, Kim, Westerman, and Tom-Tong (2008) conducted a study on Facebook to further understand how Facebook users interpret things they see on Facebook such as pictures and wall postings. The researchers found that information posted on someone’s wall such as comments or photographs are perceived to make a stronger impression on the viewer than information provided by the actual owner of the Facebook page.
These conclusions go along with Walther and Park’s (2002) warranting hypothesis, which suggests that descriptions that are created by someone else about a targeted person are perceived as more truthful than descriptions that are made by the targeted person. This is a key reason why Facebook can create many complications in relationships. Since there are vast amounts of information on someone’s profile that may or may not be posted by them, others may see this information and make their own meaning out of it. Whether the meaning is true or not is what can cause complications.
“Facebook Stalking”
An issue that needs to be considered to fully understand this topic is how much time people are actually spending looking at another’s profile page and examining its content. While conducting a study to find how users of Facebook develop relationships with other users, Steinfield and Lampe (2009) found that the most common type of interaction on Facebook is maintaining behaviors such as looking at other profiles and communicating with close friends. This type of searching through other users’ Facebook profiles is commonly known among users as “Facebook stalking” but can be technically referred to as information seeking.
Information seeking is described by Steinfield and Lampe (2009) as using a SNS such as Facebook to find out information about friends, romantic partners, peers in one’s classes, or people that they have met or became friends with in a social setting, that live close to them, or share a common interest. This type of information seeking is important because knowing more about someone helps reduce anxiety and questions in a relationship that can help the relationship develop (Berger & Calabrese, 1975).
Before Facebook, keeping up with friends and partners was mainly done through direct communication whether it is face-to-face, over the phone, or any type of communication where a person can receive a direct response from the other. With Facebook, users can virtually view what their “friends” are doing and whom they are talking to through photo albums and wall posts because Facebook allows for large displays of information to be shared publicly. A study focusing on how young adults are spending their time on Facebook has confirmed that looking at other user’s Facebook pages and seeing what they have been doing has been proven to be more popular among college aged students then actually sharing information on another’s wall or updating one’s profile information (Pempek, et al., 2009). A SNS that was originally designed to create social interaction between college students has grown to a place where people can “stalk” their friends. With status updates and wall postings, one may easily be able to know where their friends or romantic partners are and what they are doing hour-by-hour.