Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships

Research Question: Is social media activity related to layers of intimacy in social relationships? Study design: Mixed methods, survey on social relationships with 30 participants who identified up to 20 best/close friends and their use of social media. The same 30 participants were interviewed to g...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sutcliffe, A, Dunbar, R, El-Jarn, H
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Taylor and Francis 2022
_version_ 1797109751438376960
author Sutcliffe, A
Dunbar, R
El-Jarn, H
author_facet Sutcliffe, A
Dunbar, R
El-Jarn, H
author_sort Sutcliffe, A
collection OXFORD
description Research Question: Is social media activity related to layers of intimacy in social relationships? Study design: Mixed methods, survey on social relationships with 30 participants who identified up to 20 best/close friends and their use of social media. The same 30 participants were interviewed to gather details of how they communicated with close and best friends, and how they used social media/CMC to maintain their social relationships. Analysis: communication frequency, content and rationale were classified according to the intimacy of relationships between the ego and recipients as best or close friends. Results: Communication with best friends was either face to face or by conversational media (phone, text) in both normal use and emergencies. Emotional support and intimate topics dominated these exchanges. Communication with close friends used broadcast social media (Facebook), text and phone. Face to Face (FtF), phone and text were preferred by the majority of participants for social relationship maintenance. Implications: Dyadic (person to person) communication face to face and via social media, phone and text are vital to provide social and emotional support in intimate social relationships. Social media in particular Facebook broadcast functions play a role in supporting awareness of both intimate and less intimate social relationships.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T07:45:52Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:b8ab748c-5892-4e7a-a8e0-f529d694a94c
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T07:45:52Z
publishDate 2022
publisher Taylor and Francis
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:b8ab748c-5892-4e7a-a8e0-f529d694a94c2023-05-26T08:49:16ZInvestigating the use of social media in intimate social relationshipsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b8ab748c-5892-4e7a-a8e0-f529d694a94cEnglishSymplectic ElementsTaylor and Francis2022Sutcliffe, ADunbar, REl-Jarn, HResearch Question: Is social media activity related to layers of intimacy in social relationships? Study design: Mixed methods, survey on social relationships with 30 participants who identified up to 20 best/close friends and their use of social media. The same 30 participants were interviewed to gather details of how they communicated with close and best friends, and how they used social media/CMC to maintain their social relationships. Analysis: communication frequency, content and rationale were classified according to the intimacy of relationships between the ego and recipients as best or close friends. Results: Communication with best friends was either face to face or by conversational media (phone, text) in both normal use and emergencies. Emotional support and intimate topics dominated these exchanges. Communication with close friends used broadcast social media (Facebook), text and phone. Face to Face (FtF), phone and text were preferred by the majority of participants for social relationship maintenance. Implications: Dyadic (person to person) communication face to face and via social media, phone and text are vital to provide social and emotional support in intimate social relationships. Social media in particular Facebook broadcast functions play a role in supporting awareness of both intimate and less intimate social relationships.
spellingShingle Sutcliffe, A
Dunbar, R
El-Jarn, H
Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
title Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
title_full Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
title_fullStr Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
title_short Investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
title_sort investigating the use of social media in intimate social relationships
work_keys_str_mv AT sutcliffea investigatingtheuseofsocialmediainintimatesocialrelationships
AT dunbarr investigatingtheuseofsocialmediainintimatesocialrelationships
AT eljarnh investigatingtheuseofsocialmediainintimatesocialrelationships