Facebook Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: Relationship Maintenance Strategies Among Geographically Dispersed and Communication-

Restricted Connections

Jessica VitakCollege of Information StudiesUniversity of Marylandjvitak@umd.edu | @jvitak jessicavitak.com/cv

Credit: Norebbo

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Why relationship maintenance matters

Cre

dit

: Photo

s_by_L

is

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But being near friends isn’t always easy…

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Ways to connect distant ties

What do we mean by “distant,” anyway?

Letters (pen pals!)Phone (landline, mobile,

texts)Text-based CMC (email,

IM)Video-based CMC

(Skype, Google Hangouts)

Social network sites

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“I suspect that Facebook’s one great contribution has been to slow down that rate of relationship decay by allowing us to keep in touch with friends over long distances.”

--Robin Dunbar (2011, p. 83)

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How are people using Facebook to maintain relationships with different types of social

ties?

Is Facebook merely a supplement to to other forms of communication, or does it

enhance relational quality for certain types of relationship?

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Facebook Profile LayoutOctober 2012

Participants were asked to log into site, go to their profile and select Friend in top left position.

They entered name of person into a survey field.

Questions were then tailored to the selected Friend (e.g., Closeness item: “John and I have a strong connection”).#cscw2014 | @jvitak

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Why use this method?

Major weakness of relationship maintenance research is limited focus on strong tie relationships.

Many Facebook relationships are weak ties.

Furthermore, many Facebook relationships span significant geographic distance.

Dibble et al. (2012) Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale

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<30 mins

30-60min

1-2hr 2-4hr 4-6hr 6+hr0

30

60

90

120

150

# of

res

pond

ents

Reported Geographic Distance Between Friends(estimated driving distance)

34% of sample

28% of sample

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M=3.13 (2+ hour drive)SD=2.05

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Strong ties who live near each other

Weak ties who live very far apart

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Facebook Relationship Maintenance

Supportive Communication (7 items): behaviors signaling social & emotional support; social grooming behaviors

Shared Interests (7 items): interactions on site surrounding shared likes, activities, etc. (e.g., TV show, sports team)

Passive Consumption (4 items): browsing Friend’s content without direct interaction

Social Information Seeking (5 items): mundane communication + discovering new things about Friend

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Facebook’s Impact on Relational Quality

Two new measures assessed the extent to which Facebook users felt their use of Facebook impacted their relationship with a specific Friend:

1.Facebook’s Impact on Relational Closeness (5 items):Facebook helps me understand (person’s name) better. Facebook has positively impacted my relationship with (person’s name).

2.Facebook’s Impact on Relational Stability (4 items):Without Facebook, (person’s name) and I would fall out of touch. Facebook plays an important role in maintaining my relationship with (person’s name).

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RQ1: Examining variance in communication frequency based

on geographic proximity

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Face-to-Face

Phone Calls

Texting Email IM Skype0

1

2

3

4

Private Messages

Wall Posts Like Content

Comment Visit Profile Browse Photos

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Nearby Friends Far Away Friends * Statistically Significant Difference (t-test)

* * * * * *

Non

-Faceb

ook

Com

mu

nic

ati

on

Fre

qu

en

cy

Faceb

ook-S

pecifi

c

Com

mu

nic

ati

on

Fre

qu

en

cy

T-tests with ANCOVAs controlling for relational closeness

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H1 & H2: Geographic proximity,

relationship maintenance, & Facebook’s impact on

relational quality

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1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Nearby Friends Far Away Friends

Exte

nt

to w

hic

h t

hey a

gre

ed w

ith s

tate

ments

about

behavio

rs/o

utc

om

es

(1-5

Lik

ert

type s

cale

)

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H3 & H4: Facebook as primary form of communication, relationship

maintenance, & Facebook’s impact on relational quality

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How do you operationalize

Facebook as the primary form of communication

between a dyad?

Want high engagement in Facebook communication (e.g., posting on wall, commenting on updates) and low engagement in all other forms of communication (e.g., face-to-face, phone, email)

Final variable included 12.8% of participants with TradComm scores below 2.25 & FBComm scores above 3.

21.8% of responses

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Supportiv

e Com

munic

atio

n

Shared

Inte

rest

s

Passive

Con

sum

ption

Socia

l Info

rmat

ion S

eeki

ng

FB Im

pact o

n Clo

senes

s

FB Im

pact o

n Sta

bility

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Exte

nt

to w

hic

h t

hey a

gre

ed w

ith s

tate

ments

about

behavio

rs/o

utc

om

es

(1-5

Lik

ert

type s

cale

)

Facebook is Primary Form of Communication

Facebook is Not Primary Form of Communication

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But what’s it all mean?Use of Facebook for relationship maintenance—and perceived relational benefits—vary by context

Suggested supplemental role of Facebook for closer (geographically & emotionally speaking) ties

Potential for enhancing role for weaker connections & keeping relationships from fading away

See Vitak (2012): Keeping Connected in the Facebook Age

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But what’s it all mean?

Facebook as a “virtual rolodex”Role of affordancesReduced transaction costsBenefits of masspersonal

communication

Media multiplexity considerations Is Facebook one or multiple

communication channels?How do newer communication

technologies reshape our understanding of media multiplexity?

Credit: arahinvegas

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Design Implications

Encourage interactions between users after a profile visit

Predicting Friends a user will want to interact with in the future

Look at interaction patterns with mutual friendsCustomize News Feed content

Focus on ways to not be creepy when encouraging interaction

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Thanks!

Jessica Vitak

University of Maryland’s iSchool

Email: jvitak@umd.edu | Twitter: @jvitak

Find this paper at jessicavitak.com/cv

This project was part of my dissertation research, so a big shout-out to my graduate advisor, Nicole Ellison, for her Yoda-like wisdom on the project.

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