Facebook is an application that is used by over 68% of the US population, in recent years Facebook has become one of the most popular websites on the internet. People use the social media platform for many reasons including uploading photos at a party, getting updates on the news, or stalking an ex. Scholars on the other hand started to research for the real reasoning behind why people continue to go onto social media. The two motivations found by Quan-Haase and Young in 2010 are social connectivity and social information.
Social connectivity is how people use social media to build and maintain relationships with others, while social information is the ability to learn and research others they know. With over 81% of people saying they are constantly checking their Facebook, researcher Muise et al (2009) found that the amount of time spent on Facebook directly relates to an increase in the feeling of jealousy in a romantic relationship. In 2015, Marianne Dainton & Alexandra Stokes hypothesised:
H: Individuals who indicate strong agreement with using Facebook for relationship maintenance will enact more Facebook Assurances, positivity, openness and online monitoring than will individuals who indicate disagreement or moderate agreement with using Facebook for maintenance purposes
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Marianne and Alexandrea studied different types of reactions significant others have when browsing social media. Jealousy was a recurring emotion that was discussed amongst the research candidates. There are different types of jealousy that are involved when browsing on social media. Romantic jealousy is defined as the reaction to a real or perceived threat to a romantic relationship (White, 1989). Cognitive jealousy which is the feeling of suspicion or concern thoughts.
While emotional jealousy is the feeling of fear, anger and insecurity that results from a threat (Pfeiffer & Wong, 1989). Trait jealousy is defined as the extent to which people demonstrate jealousy across different situations and relationships (Bringle, 1981). The final type of jealousy is called Facebook jealousy, which is the feeling of jealousy associated with looking at a significant others Facebook page. Marianne Dainton saw the different types of jealousy that are involved within a relationship just on social media and posed the research question:
RQ: What are the relationships among Facebook maintenance behaviors (including online monitoring) and the cognitive, emotional, trait, and facebook jealousy?
Marianne believed in the idea that if the purpose of using Facebook is for relationship maintenance, then it is likely to predict maintenance behaviors and those behaviors in the end are associated with the experience of jealousy in a relationship.
To continue her research, Marianne did a sample of 189 college students via an online survey. In her study Marianne used a five point Likert scale format. The goal of the study was to survey college students in a relationship to gather information about Facebook use and jealousy. Marianne contacted people within her college network to start the research and followed up by contacting professors at different universities and requesting that they provide extra credit to students who participate in the study.
Of the 189 participants, 24% disclosed themselves as male while 75% disclosed they were female (1% did not report gender). After Marianne conducted her research, she found that 86% of people would do things including “Posting on your partners wall to make them feel special” and “Responding to their messages in a timely manner”. Marianne’s mean score of the use of Facebook for relationships to be a 3.58 with a standard deviation of 1.1, where 1= Strongly disagree and 5= Strongly agree. Marianne asked many questions too regarding jealousy, some example questions Marianne asked were: “I feel jealous when my partner flirts with someone else” and “I am worried that some member of the opposite sex may be chasing after my partner.” Breaking down Marianne’s results, she found that 85% of people have found themselves in a relationship where they have felt Facebook jealousy.
Marianne found that there was significant differences between the groups in the use of Facebook assurance, Facebook monitoring and Facebook positivity. The results support the hypothesis for Facebook assurances and Facebook Positivity.
The goal of the study was not only to research jealous tendencies in a relationship on Facebook, but to also use a more refined idea to research relationships and the impacts they have on online relationship maintenance and behaviors
It is important to think openly about the reasons why humans act the way they act and the different interact we have with each other. As college student who is involved in a romantic relationship, I have done many things subconsciously that Marianne considered in her research. The psychology behind why I act the way I do in my relationship is incredible how it lines up with a majority of population.
I personally have never considered the possibilities that others who are in a relationship typically have the same general tendencies regardless of race or gender. Understanding the logistics behind social media use and relationships opens the ability to seeing how humans use communication in different ways. Understanding and knowing which emotions are involved in interactions via social media will make it more easier and apparent to understanding social situations.
