Topic: Maintaining Relationships

Research Question: Does Facebook Help Maintain Long Distance Relationships?

How you gathered your data, challenges you faced, things you learned about research (100-200 words max)

In the early phases of this research, our initial interests were to examine if Facebook helps in maintaining long distance romantic relationships. We learned during our pilot that we don’t have enough time (or the resources) to gather participants who are involved in a long distance romantic relationship. We decided that the next best thing, and perhaps the easiest, was to change the study’s objective—examine if Facebook facilitates long distance friendships. We were very lucky, and smart, to have piloted early on—changing the topic worked out very well. For this study, we gathered our data via research and survey method. The codebook and coding sheet was created after the first set of data came in, and from there we coded while continuing to collect interviews for gender equality. The process of coding, finding variables, and making room for newly found variables were time consuming, challenging, but welcoming process.

Discussion

Survey ResultsFrom this survey, we only received 20 results due to the lack of interest from our facebook networks. But from these results, the surveyors have shown that they find facebook to be a great source to contact those who live long distances by rating it a 8.55 average on a 1-10 scale. Another great find from this survey was that 55% of the survey takers believe that facebook was helpful and very helpful when it came to using it as a tool to communicate with friends who live long distances. From the ranking system used with survey monkey system, we found that the news feed, commenting/linking, and chat are the top three features that surveyors ranked from the seven features labeled; with the news feed being the highest rank then comment/liking and finally chat. Overall the results showed the believed that facebook was a great tool for those who wanted to chat with their friends that lived long distances.Usage.Generation Y is dependent on SNS to maintain offline and online relationships. However, Manago (2012) observes that communication depends on which relationship users prioritize more. In this study, we asked our participants to rate how much time they spend communicating on Facebook. Our results show that while the participants often log onto Facebook, the levels of intimacy in the way they communicate depends on the depth of friendship they have with the Facebook friend. For instance, communication with long distance close family members (siblings) is a higher priority compared to communication with old school friends.Gender also plays a role in how often the participants communicate on Facebook. According to Mansson (2011), there is a correlation between gender and the level of affection expressed online. Our data shows that women are more likely to share grief or vent frustrations online compared to the male participants surveyed.

Expressing Emotion on Facebook.
To deepen our understanding of the depth of intimacy that occurs during CMC, we examined how emotion is conveyed on Facebook. The variables measured were: Sympathy, Grief, and Affections. Under affections, sub categories include coded language, use of emoticons, emotionality, frequent conversations, and others were measured.

In analyzing grief, we asked the participants how often they shared or vented grief on Facebook. We found that of the 9 participants, 55 percent never shared or vented grief on Facebook, 11 percent sometimes shared, 22 percent often shared, while only 11 percent always shared. (See Figure 1)

However, when asked if they reached out to a Facebook friend who shared or vented grief on Facebook, we found: 66 percent were very sympathetic to friend and 11 percent were neither sympathetic nor unsympathetic. (See Figure 2)

According to Manson (2011), gender plays a role in expressing affection online. Our results show that while coded language is popular regardless of gender, women are more likely to use emotions than men. Facebook facilitates communication with long distance friends.Kujath (2011) suggests that Generation Y utilizes Facebook to communicate with peers and close friends alike because the social media site is simple and quick way to send message. Our data shows that Facebook’s apps and features make its users aware of the lives’ of their Facebook friends--which in turn starts a conversation, depending on how engaging the “posts” and “shares” were. Urista (2009) contends that the immediacy and efficiency that Facebook offers is attractive to this generation. Our data shows that the participants find that Facebook has been very helpful in maintaining relationships with peers and long distance friends. One of the variables examined in this study is grief. According to Wandel (2009), college students who have suffered the loss of a friend are likely to turn to Facebook to seek comfort because this mode of communication reaches a wider audience. While our participants were not open to sharing their grief online, we have one participant who experienced the loss of a very close friend and went through the process of mourning with her friends via Facebook. The apps and features available on Facebook attracts its users to start conversations. According to Hanson (2011), the Millenial’s, a generation raised alongside rapid advancements in technology, spend a lot of their time online to communicate and be entertained. Our data shows that the participants spark conversations on Facebook according to what their friends use more and they engage in conversations with peers they deem entertaining.

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