ColloquyVol.12,Fall2016,pp.87-100

PicsorItDidn’tHappen:RelationshipSatisfactionandItsEffectsonInstagramUse

ChristinaManvelyanAbstractInstagram isoneof themostpopularsocialmedianetworks,especiallyamongpeople18-29yearsold.ThisstudyexaminestherelationshipsbetweenInstagramuseand romantic relationship satisfaction.A surveyof 235people in romanticrelationshipsandwithactiveInstagramaccountsdeterminedeachparticipant’srelationship satisfaction scoreand Instagramhabits.Thedatawasanalyzed insearchofcorrelationsbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandInstagramuse.Intheend, no correlation was found between overall relationship satisfaction andInstagramaddictionoruse.Therewas,however,amoderatecorrelationbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandthe likelihoodofauserpostingaphotoofhis/hersignificantotheronInstagram.

AsofFebruary24,2016,49.5million#mcmand68.6million#wcwphotoshavebeenpostedonInstagram,accordingtoasearchoftheaforementionedhashtagson the Instagram app. Hashtags such as “#ManCrushMonday” (#mcm) and“#WomanCrushWednesday” (#wcw) dominate the social media platform ofInstagram.Thesehashtags,andotherslikethem,aretypicallyusedtorecognizeandadmirelovedonesorcrushesonsocialmedia(Vultaggio,2015).AccordingtoLavoie,“ahashtagisanimportantpartoftheInstagramexperience”asit“allowsuserstofindimagesrelatedtoa[keyword]oftheirinterestandtotagandposttheirownuser-generatedcontentonInstagram”(2015).Thereasoningforthesedigitalpublicdisplaysofpersonalrelationshipscanvaryfrompersontoperson.An Instagram user may post a photo involving his/her significant other (SO)because theuser is happywith his/her relationship andwants to express thispublicly (Sheldon&Bryant,2015).Ontheotherhand,ausermaybeunhappywith a relationship, yet continue to post about his/her SO in an attempt toconvincetheaudience,andpossiblyevenhimselforherself,thattherelationshipisgoingwell(Tong,2013).

Theusesandgratificationsofvariousmassmediaoutletshavebeentopicsofstudyfordecades,sinceHerzogfirstclassifiedreasonsforconsumersoapoperalisteningin1942.Fromradioandtelevisiontosocialmediaandadvertising,every

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media outlet is unique, and therefore, serves as a hub for new studies andanalyses.Overtheyears,variousstudieshaveidentifiedneedsforsocialmediausethatrangefromsurveillanceandjealousy(Farrugia,2013)todocumentationandcreativity(Sheldon&Bryant,2015).Socialmediahasbecomealargepartofsociety,asitinfluenceswhatpeoplethink,howtheyact,andwhatinformationthey divulge (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Additionally, Whiting and Williamsconcludedthatpeoples’livesinfluencewhichsocialmediaoutletstheyuse,andhowtheyusethem(2013).

SystromandKriegercreatedInstagramin2010,butitwasnotuntil2012thatthe app gained major popularity after reaching 100 thousand users (Lagorio-Chafkin,2012).Socialmediaisdefinedasanonlineplatformwherepeoplesharetheir opinions and experiences with others (Jambulingam, Selvarajah, &Thuraisingam, 2014). Instagram’s short presence in theworld of socialmedianetworks(SMN)resultsinfewacademicstudiesontheapplication.However,avariety of studies have been conducted assessing the influence of Facebook,Twitter, and other popular SMN on people, their self-esteem, and theirrelationships(Lin&Chung,2015).InternetusersspendmoretimeonInstagramthan on other social media sites (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). Because of thispopularity, it is important to understandwhy people use Instagramandwhatgratificationstheyreceivefromit.UsesandGratificationsTheoryUsesandgratificationstheory(UGT)hasrelevancetosocialmedia,butithasonlyrecentlybecomeacommonlystudiedtopicduetotherelativenewnessofSMN(Whiting&Williams,2013).UGTisamasscommunicationtheorythatexamineshowuserschoosespecificformsofmediatomeettheirneeds.Theseneedscanvary,andincludeattentionseeking,self-disclosure,habit,affection,informationsharing,andsocialinfluence(Malik,Dhir,&Nieminen,2015).Forexample,oneusermaygratifyhis/herneedforvalidationbyreceivinglikesandcommentsonphotos,while anothermay use SMN to gratify his/her need formeeting newpeople.UGTassumesthatconsumersdonotpassivelyengageinthemediathatpresentsitselftothem(Whiting&Williams,2013).Instead,itsaysthataudiencemembershavepowerovermedia,andchoosewhattheyseeaswellaswhattheyshare(Whiting&Williams,2013).

Themost influential reasonfor InstagramusewasdefinedbySheldonandBryantas“Surveillance/Knowledgeaboutothers”(2015).SheldonandBryant’sstudy measured participants’ contextual ages and narcissism levels and thenexaminedtheirInstagramusesandgratificationstofindcorrelationsbetweenthe

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factors. Sheldon and Bryant’s results found four motives for Instagram use:Surveillance/Knowledgeaboutothers;Documentation;Coolness;andCreativity,withSurveillance/Knowledgedefinedas thehighest rankedmotive.This resultconcludesthatmanypeopleuseInstagramasameanstokeepupwith,orgainknowledgeabout,what friends, family, and strangersaredoing.Knowing this,Instagramusersconveycertainpartsoftheir livesfortheirfriends,family,andstrangerstosee(Sheldon&Bryant,2015).

Some other gratifications received from using social media are diversion,personal relationship, personal identity, and surveillance (McQuail, Blumler,&Brown,1972).AccordingtoMcQuailetal.,diversionistheprocessofusingmediatoescapeproblemsandreleaseemotions(1972).However, recedingtoodeepintoonlinemediaformscanhaveanegativeimpactonlifesatisfaction.InastudybyGoodman-Deane,Mieczakowski,Johnson,Goldhaber,andClarkson,highlifesatisfactionwasassociatedwithmoretimespentinface-to-faceconversationsaswellasphoneandvideocalls(2016).Ontheotherhand,participantswithlowlifesatisfactionspentmoretimecommunicatingthroughscreen-basedmeanssuchastextmessagingandemailing(Goodman-Deanetal.,2016).Sincesocialmediais a “screen-basedmean,” there is apossibility thathigher SMNusemayalsocorrelatewithlowerlifeorrelationshipsatisfaction.LifeThroughtheSocialMediaLensThroughthelensofusesandgratificationstheory,ithasbeendiscussedthatSMNuserspostcontenttogratifycertainneeds(Sheldon&Bryant,2015).Socialmediaallowsusers to choosehow theywant their lives tobeportrayed.Due to thisfreedom,therearevariousinstancesoffabricatedorexaggeratedSMNprofilesin past studies. The reasoning for these “exaggerations” vary from person topersonaswellasbetweenSMN(Tong,2013).

AstudybyTongin2013examinedtheuseofsocialmediatoconveycertainmessagesaboutone’s life inorderto instill reactionsfromaudiencemembers.Tongstudied thesocialmediaaccountsofparticipantswhohadrecentlybeeninvolved in breakups to see how the participants’ relationships with their ex-significantotherschanged(2013).Somepeopleseveredallsocialmediatieswithexes, somewereable tomaintain amicable Facebook relationships, and someparticipated ingravedressing(Tong,2013).Thisconceptof“gravedressing” isconsideredbyTongtobethepossiblefourthphaseofrelationshiptermination.Gravedressingistheactofcreatingapublicversionoftherelationship’shistorythatjustifiesitstermination(Tong,2013).Gravedressingisoneexampleofactivesocialmediamanipulationinordertoconveyaparticularmessage.

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Tong identified a second example of SMN users posting content with aspecific,consciousgoalinher2013study.ItwasfoundbyTongthatafterabreakup,someparticipants“taunted”or“teased”theirex-partnersbypostingthingson social media that they hoped their exes would see (2013). Once again,participants were using social media to subtly convey messages to specificaudiences.Socialnetworksareimportanttotheentirelifecycleofarelationship,frombeginningtoend(Tong,2013).InTong’sstudy,however,onlytheaftermathof relationships was taken into account. It is possible, however, that peopleexhibit similar signs of socialmedia embellishmentwhile still in a relationship(Miller&Tedder,2011).

Whileusingsocialmedia,peopleoftentakeonslightlyorcompletelyalteredpersonas. Self-integration is when users construct idealized versions ofthemselves without fear of judgment from offline social circles (Lin & Chung,2015). The other side of self-integration is social-integration, which is thetransparency of members of SMN when they express their personal beliefs,faiths,activities,etc.(Lin&Chung,2015).LinandChung’sstudysurveyedSMNuserstoidentifytheimportanceofvariouscriteriawhileusingFacebook,Twitter,andPinterest(2015).ItwasstatedinthelimitationsandfutureresearchsectionofthestudybyLinandChung(2015)thatalthoughthefindingswererelevantatthetimethestudywasconducted,theirmethodcouldbereappliedtoupdateSMNsites.IfthisstudywasappliedtoInstagram,resultscouldshowthepresenceofbothsocial-andself-integration.AnInstagramusercouldself-disclose(social-integration)aswellasembellishandexaggeratehisorherlife(self-integration).

TodelvedeeperintothereasonsbehindusingInstagramspecifically,SheldonandBryant(2015)conductedastudythatinvestigatedthemotivesforInstagramuse. The study looked at how participants’ life satisfaction, interpersonalinteraction, social activity, and the psychological trait of narcissism influencedtheir use of Instagram. Results showed a positive relationship between highinterpersonal interaction scores and using Instagram for coolness, creativepurposes,andsurveillance(Sheldon&Bryant,2015).Anotherfindingshowedapositive relationship between high levels of social activity such as traveling,visiting friends,going toevents,etc., andusing Instagramasadocumentationtool (Sheldon & Bryant, 2015). Sheldon and Bryant (2015) found a positiverelationship between using Instagram to be cool and for surveillance whenexaminingnarcissismlevelsinparticipants.AlimitationexpressedinthestudybySheldonandBryant(2015)recommendedthatfutureresearchtrytoexploreifthereareothermotivationsforInstagramuse,astheirstudyuncoveredonlyfour.Onepotentialfactorforfuturestudyisromanticrelationshipsatisfaction.

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TheEffectsofRelationshipsonEverydayLifeRelationshipsatisfactionisdefinedasinterpersonalevaluationofthepositivityoffeelings for one's partner and attraction to the relationship (Miller & Tedder,2011).Goodman-Deanetal.(2016)conductedastudyinwhichtheyexaminedparticipants’ use of various communications technologies and their level ofrelationship satisfaction. The study found that overall high satisfaction waspositively correlated with face-to-face and voice-to-voice communication andnegatively associated with text messaging and instant messaging (Goodman-Deanetal.,2016).ThisstudybyGoodman-Deanetal.(2016)wasoneoffewtoexamineanysortof lifesatisfactionincomparisontomediause.Othercriteriafor varying social media usage that have been studied are age and gender(Jambulingametal.,2014).GenerationY:TheDigitalGenerationGenerationYisthefirstgenerationborninthedigitalageandthereforeadiverseandnewdemographictostudy(Jambulingametal.,2014).GenerationYreferstopeople born between the years 1980 and 2000 (Eisner, 2005). According toStatista(2015),asofApril2015,55%ofInternetusersbetweenages18and29,and 28% of Internet users between ages 30 and 49 used Instagram. Besidesphysical age, there is also the concept of contextual age,which, according toSheldonandBryant, isoftenignoredwhenstudyingmotivationsformediause(2015). Contextual age is measured by combining elements such as lifesatisfaction, interpersonal interaction, social activity, physical health,mobility,and economic security, and canhelp explain interpersonal needs andmotives(Sheldon & Bryant, 2015). Social activity, one of the determining factors ofcontextualage,emergedasoneofthemostimportantpredictorsofwhypeopleuseInstagram(Sheldon&Bryant,2015).

Socialmedia is a tool thatmembersofGenYuse to share their interests,emotions,andactivities. ItwasfoundbyDugganandSmiththattheInstagramaudiencelargelyconsistsofyouthfuldemographicswithaskewtowardswomen(2013).WithinGenY,therearedifferencesinsocialmediauseandsitepopularitybetweenmalesandfemales(Jambulingametal.,2014). Inaddition,malesandfemalesexhibitdifferentpostinghabitsonInstagram(Jambulingametal.,2014).InastudyconductedbyJakpat(2015),56%ofmalerespondentsselectedaphotoofan“activitythatyouaredoing(withothersorbyyourself)”asthetypeofphototheypostedmoston Instagram.51%of femaleswhotook thesurveyselected“private photo (selfie, candid, or things you own)” aswhat they postedmostoften.

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ThestudyconductedbyJambulingametal.(2014)usedasurveytodeterminethetopsocialmediasitesusedbyGenYsandexaminegenderdifferences.Resultsfoundthatmenmorecommonlyhadoneortwonetworkswhilemorewomenhad three networks (Jambulingam et al., 2014). Jambulingam et al. (2014)identified three needs for social media use: personal, public, and broadcast.Personalneedsaretomaintaincloserelationshipswithfriendsandfamily,whilepublicneedsaretokeeptrackoftheactivitiesoffamouspeopleandtomeetnewpeople (Jambulingam et al., 2014). Finally, broadcast, also known as self-promotion,istheneedtoadvertiseactivitiesasmeanstoboostself-confidence(Jambulingametal.,2014).Outoftensub-categoriesforusageofsocialmediaaccording to preference, the threehighestwere: communicatingwith friends;conveying information;andexpressingemotions (Jambulingametal.,2014). ItwasconcludedbyJambulingametal.(2014)thatGenYsadoptsocialmediaasalifecompanioninallaspects.ThisstudybyJambulingametal.(2014)gaveinsightonthemostapparentusesofsocialmediawithinGenY.

Mostoftheaforementionedstudiestookausesandgratificationsapproachtoidentifythereasonswhypeopleusecertainmediaoutlets.Whileeachstudyshowedreasoningandresearchtosupportitsclaims,manystudiesneglectedtoexamine life factors of participants as possible causes for various media use.BasedonthefindingsbyGoodman-Deanetal. (2016),relationshipsatisfactionhasastrongeffectonoverallmediause.BothSheldonandBryant(2015)andLinandChung(2015)recommendedfutureresearchwithintheirstudiesinordertoupdate and solidify their findings. The research discussed above laid thefoundationforthecurrentstudyandleadtothestudy’sresearchquestion.

RQ1:IsthereacorrelationbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandInstagramuse?

Method

ParticipantsAn online survey was conducted through Survey Monkey for this study.Participantsagreedto take thesurveybyaccepting the termsof the informedconsent.Theinformedconsentpagenotifiedparticipantsthatthesurveywouldbecompletelyanonymousandthattheycouldoptoutatanytime.Afterverifyingthat theywereat least18yearsofage,participantswereallowed to take thesurvey. The study required thatparticipantsbe in a romantic relationship andhaveanactiveInstagramaccountinordertoparticipate.Allpotentialparticipantswerenotifiedoftherequirementstheyhadtomeetbeforecontinuingwiththesurvey.

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The survey received a total of 313 responses during the data-collectingperiod.Ofthe313taken,235surveyswerecompleteandthereforevalidforthisresearch study. The main demographics in this study were both males andfemaleswhowereinromanticrelationshipsandhadactiveInstagramaccounts.89%oftheparticipantswhofullycompletedthesurveywerefemale,11%weremale. The target age range for the survey was 18-29 year olds. The highestpercentageofparticipantsfellintotheagerangeof18-20yearsoldwith46%oftotalparticipants.31%ofparticipantswerebetween theages21and23,14%were 24-26, 4% were 27-29, and the remaining 3% were 30+. Due to therequirements of the study, a purposive sampling technique was used. Onlypeopleinromanticrelationshipswithactive,personal,Instagramaccountscouldparticipateinthesurvey.Asaresult,samplingcouldnotbecompletelyrandomand potential participants had to be informed of these prerequisites. Theparticipantsusedinthisstudywerepulledusingvariousonlinemethods.

Participantswere recruitedbyposting a link to the SurveyMonkeyonlinesurvey on socialmedia. Thismethod called onpeople to take a 10-15-minutesurveyiftheymettherequirementsstatedabove.FacebookandInstagramwereusedinordertoreachavarietyofpotentialparticipants.OnInstagram,aphotowas posted explaining the survey requirements and guiding interestedparticipantstothelinkforthesurvey.OnFacebook,alinkwaspostedfromthepersonalaccountoftheresearcheralongwithanexplanationofthestudy,askingthoseeligibletoparticipate.Finally,thesurveywaspostedtoaFacebook“group”called“CSULABookExchange”.ThispageisaforumonFacebookwhereCaliforniaStateUniversity,LosAngelesstudentsgotobuyandsellbooks,askforadvice,anddiscussothertopicsrelatedtotheuniversity.Thismethodyieldedthemostsurvey responses,most likelydue to the10,700membersof thegroupat thetime.

ProcedureSurvey.Thesurveyhadatotalof40elements.ThefirstpartofthesurveyusedamodifiedversionofTheCouplesSatisfaction Index(CSI) (Funk&Rogge,2007).Thissurveywasoriginallyintendedformarriedcouples,andthereforehadtobeslightly shortened andmodified to better fit the demographic for the currentstudy.Thescaleaskedtheparticipanttorevealhis/herrelationshipsatisfactionwithavarietyofLikertscaleresponses.Theresponsesmeasuredfrom1(AlwaysDisagree)to5(AlwaysAgree),1(Notatall)to5(Completely),and1(Never)to5(All theTime). Then,participantsweregiven fivedifferentpairsofwordsand

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wereaskedtoestimatetheirrelationshiponthingssuchasInterestingtoBoring,CasualtoSerious,andSturdytoFragile.Thescalerangedfrom1to5.

The secondpart of the survey asked questions regarding the participant’sInstagramuseandprovidedLikertscaleresponses.Thispartofthesurveypulledquestions from two different scales. The first scale used was the FacebookAddictionScale(Andreessen,Torsheim,Brunborg,&Pallesen,2012).ThisscalewasmodifiedtofitthestudyofInstagram,andthetimeframewaschangedfrom“howoftenduringthelastyear…”tohowofteningeneral.Next,questionswerepulledfromastudyconductedbyJakpat(2015).Theresponsesmeasuredfrom1(VeryRarely)to5(VeryOften).Questionssuchashowoftenparticipantschecktheir Instagram account and how often they posted camewithmultiple timerange answer options, for example, Less than 2weeks ago - Three years ago.Finally,participantswereaskedtorankseventypesofpostsfrom1(whattheypostthemostoften)to7(whattheyposttheleastoften).Thepurposeofthesequestionswastogainanoverallunderstandingofparticipants’Instagramhabits,reasonsforposting,etc.

Relationship Satisfaction. The first variable of this experiment was therelationship itself. The participant's relationship satisfaction, how long therelationshiphadbeengoingon,andhowtheparticipantfeltwereallfactorsthatweremeasuredbythefirstpartofthesurvey.Thiswastodeterminehoweachparticipantfeltabouthis/herrelationship.TheFacebookSatisfactionScalehad20measureditems(α=.944).

InstagramUse.Thesecondvariablewastheparticipant'sInstagrampostinghabitsandoverallInstagramuse.Thesecondpartofthesurveydeterminedwhatandhowoften theparticipantposted.Thegoalwas to findout if therewasarelationshipbetweenaparticipant’srelationshipsatisfactionandwhetherornottheypostphotoswithandoftheirsignificantother(SO)ontheirInstagram.Also,it measured how often participants checked Instagram and why. This was todetermineiftherewasarelationshipbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandthelevelofInstagramuse.TheInstagramUseScalehad6measureditems(α=.728).AnalysisAPearsonproduct-momentcorrelationcoefficientwascomputedtoassesstherelationship between the two measured variables. There was no correlationfoundbetweenthetwovariables(r=-.049,p=.473,n=217).

AsecondPearsonproduct-momentcorrelationcoefficientwasrun.Theposthocanalysiscomparedrelationshipsatisfactiontothescalemeasuringhowoftenparticipants posted photos involving their significant others. There was a

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moderatecorrelationbetweenthetwovariables(r=.349,p<.001,n=221).Thistestwasrunasanextensionoftheoriginalresearchquestion.InsteadoflookingatoverallInstagramuse,aspecificquestionregardingparticipants’postinghabitsregardingtheirSOwasexamined.Thepurposeofthistestwastosearchforself-disclosureinvolvingrelationshipsatisfaction.Discussion

RelationshipSatisfactionandOverallInstagramUseThe research question asked if there was a correlation between relationshipsatisfaction and Instagram use. It was anticipated that in relation to highrelationship satisfaction, the threemost apparentusesof Instagramwouldbeattention seeking, self-disclosure, and affection. On the other hand, a lowrelationship satisfaction score would result in diversion, or a higher level ofInstagram use in order to escape personal problems. In other words, asrelationshipsatisfactionwentup,Instagramusewouldgodownbecausetherewould be less diversion amongst participants who were happy with theirrelationships. After running a two-tailed correlation coefficient between thevariablesofrelationshipsatisfactionandInstagramuse,itwasdeterminedthatthereisnostatisticalrelationshipbetweenthetwovariablesinthissample.Uponclose inspection of individual participants, there were instances in which anindividual’sInstagramusewentdownastheirrelationshipsatisfactionscorewentup.Therewasnosignificanceintheseindividualfindings.However,theyhelpedsupport the claim that people with higher life satisfaction scores tended toparticipate in more face-to-face communication, and in less digitalcommunication(Goodman-Deaneetal.,2016).Withtheoverall217participants,however,therewasnostatisticalsignificancebetweenthetwofactors.

Relationshipsatisfactionwasrankedonascalefrom1to5,1beingtheleastsatisfied and 5 being themost. The lowest relationship satisfaction scorewas1.80,andthehighestwas5.00.Themeanscorewas4.26,meaningtheaverageparticipantwasverysatisfiedwithhis/herrelationship. Instagramusewasalsorankedfrom1to5,1beingtheleast“addicted”toInstagram,and5beingthemost.Thehighest Instagramusescorewas4.17, the lowestwas1.00,andthemeanscorewas2.16.Themeanof2.16meantthattheaverageparticipantdidnotgiveInstagrammuchthoughtorrankithighinimportance.

A possible flaw in the research design was the ratio of relationshipsatisfaction questions to Instagram use questions. After survey results werereceived and reliability levels tested, 20 items were selected to representrelationshipsatisfaction,whileonly6werekepttorepresentInstagramuse.All

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oftherelationshipsatisfactionquestionscamefromasingle,verifiedsource.Thescalehadareliabilityof.944andwasthereforeacrediblemeasureofrelationshipsatisfaction.SinceInstagramisarelativelynewformofmedia,notmanyscalesexist tostudy Instagramspecifically. Inaddition, thetopicof thisresearchwasveryfocusedandmadeitdifficulttofindapplicablescalestoincludeinthesurvey.Thescalesthatwerefoundhadtobeheavilymodifiedtofitthesubject.

ApplicationofPastResearchtotheCurrentStudyIn the current research study, themain gratifications that users sought wereanticipatedtobeattentionseeking,self-disclosure,anddiversion.Questionsinthe survey addressed all three of these factors to conclude how relationshipsatisfaction determined which gratifications were most commonly used. Thecurrent study looked for signs of unhappiness in participants’ personalrelationships to identify the presence of diversion with Instagram use or,furthermore, Instagram addiction. Diversion is the idea that people use socialmedia as an escape from reality (McQuail et al., 1972).More specifically, it iswhenpeopleturntotheirSMNtoforgetaboutproblemsintheirpersonallives.Some of the questionswithin the Instagram use scale addressed this idea byalteringquestionsfromaFacebookaddictionscale.Thiswasmeanttodetermineifdiversionwasmorepresentinpeoplewithlowrelationshipsatisfactionscoresandlesspresentinpeoplewithhighrelationshipsatisfactionscores.DuetotherejectionofacorrelationbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandInstagramuseinthefirsttest,diversioncouldnotbeproveninthisstudy.However,uponcloseinspectionof individualresults,afewinstancesdidoccur inwhichpeoplewithlow relationship satisfaction scores (< 2.5) showed signs of higher and morefrequentInstagramuse.

PostHocAnalysisThesecondcorrelationwasrunasaposthocanalysis.Itcomparedrelationshipsatisfactionscoreswithascalethataskedhowoftenparticipantspostedphotoswithoroftheirsignificantothers.Theresponsestothisquestionmeasuredfrom1(VeryRarely)to5(VeryOften).TheresearchquestionaskediftherewasanycorrelationbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandInstagramuse.ThisspecifictestwasruntocomparerelationshipsatisfactionwithaspecificInstagramuseactofpostingaphotowithasignificantother.Theassumptionwiththistestwasthatas relationship satisfaction went up, the likelihood of posts about theparticipant’sSOwouldgoupaswell.Thisassumptionwascorrectastherewasacorrelationofr=.349(p<.001).Thisresultsuggeststhattherewasamoderate,

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positive correlationbetween the relationship satisfaction scale andhowoftenparticipantspostthingsabouttheirSOonInstagram.Justlikevariousaspectsofreal life influence Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest use (Lin & Chung, 2015),romanticrelationshipsatisfactioncaninfluenceInstagramuse.

ApplicationofPastResearchtotheCurrentStudyThesignificanceofthisposthocfindingisthattheconceptofself-disclosuredoeshave a positive correlation with relationship satisfaction. As relationshipsatisfactiongoesup,sodoesthelikelihoodthataparticipantoftenpostsphotosinvolving his/her SO on Instagram. Self-disclosure is the aim of sharing moreinformationaboutoneselftovariousaudiences(Maliketal.,2015).Photosaredeemedtobeanimperativeformofcontentusedforself-disclosure(Maliketal.,2015).Postingphotosofone’ssignificantotherisanoteworthyexampleofself-disclosure.Somepeoplechoosetobeveryprivatebynotself-disclosing,andwillrarely reveal information about personal relationships on socialmedia. In thecurrentstudy,33%ofparticipantschoseeither“Rarely”or“Never”whenaskedhow often they posted photos of their significant others on Instagram. Theserespondentsdonotusesocialmediaasameansofsatisfyingtheneedofself-disclosure.Others,however,feeltheneedtoshareandwanttheiraudiencestoknow about their relationships. A ranking question in the survey askedparticipantstorankseventypesofphotosfromwhattheypostthemostoften(1)towhattheyposttheleastoften(7).14%ofpeopleselected“Activitythatyouare doing with your significant other” as their number one posted item. Thehighest score was for the option “Private photo (selfie, candid, or things youown)”whichreceived19%oftotalnumberonevotes.

OtherFindingsAnotheruseandgratificationthatwastestedinthisstudywasattentionseeking.Attentionseekingisdefinedasthefeelingofgettingattentionandimportancefromothers(Maliketal.,2015).Amultiple-choicequestionintheInstagramuseportion of the survey asked participants to share why they used Instagram.Participantsweretoldtoselectalloftheoptionsthatapplied.Thehighestscoringoptionwas“Tosharephotosandvideos”with92%ofparticipantsselectingthisas one of their uses and gratifications for Instagram use. The second highestoptionwas“Tokeepintouchwithfriendsandfamily”with80%,andthethirdwas “To show people what my life is like” with 48% participant selection. Inaddition to being the three most popular reasons for using Instagram, theseoptionsarealsothemostcloselyrelatedtoattentionseekingbehavior.

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LimitationsandFutureResearch

A limitation discovered in this study was an uneven ratio of female to maleparticipants.89%oftheparticipantswerefemaleandonly11%weremale.Thiscouldhavecontributedtoskewedresults,as ithasbeendiscussed inpreviousstudies that men and women have different SMN posting and usage habits(Jambulingam et al., 2014). This is not to say that the ratio of genderrepresentationwasthecauseoftheresultsofthisstudy,howeveritshouldbeaddressed in future research of this topic. In addition, there was a highpercentage of 18-20 year olds who took the survey, and each demographicthereafterwasnotequally represented.According toStatista,55%of Internetusersbetweenages18and29useInstagram(2015).AlargepartoftheInstagramuserdemographicwas therefore, unevenly represented in this sample. Futureresearchshouldalsopaycloseattentiontothisdemographicissue.

InordertomoreaccuratelyassessInstagramuse,aspecificscaleshouldbedesignedandtested.TheexistingscalesthatdealwithsocialmediaarelimitedandspecifictocertainSMNandtherefore,difficulttoamend. Ifascalecanbecreatedspecificallyforwhatthisstudyaimstofind,theresultsmayimprove.Thefinalissuewiththisstudywasalackofparticipantswhoyieldedmoderatetolowrelationship satisfaction rankings. This may simply be because people thatunhappywiththeirrelationshipsarerare,andhardertocomeby.

ApossiblefuturedirectiontotakewiththisstudyistolookatthedifferencesinInstagramusebetweenpeopleinandnotinrelationships.Sincenotmuchdatacouldbecollected involvingpeople inunhappyrelationships, itwasdifficulttoaccuratelyassessrelationshipsatisfactioninrelationtoInstagramuse.Insteadofa purposive data collecting technique, a survey can be distributed to anyonewillingtoparticipate,aslongastheyareatleast18yearsofage.Participantswilldivulge whether or not they are in a relationship and then answer questionsabout their overall Instagram use. A correlation can then be run to assessdifferences in Instagram use between participants within relationships andparticipants not in relationships. The same theories used in this study can beappliedtofuturestudiestolookfordiversion,self-disclosure,surveillance,etc.whileexaminingpeopleinandnotinrelationships.ConclusionThis study searched for a correlation between relationship satisfaction andInstagram use. The first test, which compared relationship satisfaction scoreswithoverallInstagramusescores,wasnotsignificant.Thesecondtestcompared

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relationshipsatisfactionscoreswithfrequencyofparticipantspostingabouttheirSOon Instagram.Results found that there is amoderate correlationbetweenrelationshipsatisfactionandhowoftenuserspostphotoswithoroftheirSOonInstagram.ThetopthreeusesforInstagramidentifiedinthisstudyweretosharephotosandvideos,tokeepintouchwithfriendsandfamily,andtoshowpeoplewhatone’slifeislike.Socialmedianetworksarealwaysevolvingandnewonesbecomepopularfrequently.Becauseofthis,itisimportantforresearchtostayupdatedsothatcompaniesandpeoplecanunderstandhowandwhysocialmediaisusedandhowitrelatestoeverydaylife.References

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