Length Matters: Message Metrics that Result in Higher Levels of Perceived Partner Responsiveness and Changes in Intimacy as Friends Communicate through Social Network Sites
Keywords:
Social media research, self-disclosure, computer-mediated communication, intimacy, quantitative research, social support, Facebook, social networksAbstract
This study focuses on how young adults enact their relationships in public through self-disclosing interactions on Facebook. A Facebook self-disclosure status update, along with as many as three corresponding response comments, was copied by each of 271 participants from their own Facebook Wall, and pasted to an online survey. Status update and response comments contain characters such as letters, numbers, and symbols to express meaning. Seven textual measures were used to quantify the content of these messages; one such measure was a count of the number of characters contained in each response. Results show message length is associated with perceived partner responsiveness and feelings of increased intimacy with those who reply to one’s status update with a response comment. Women, and close friends and family post longer messages. The outward appearance of a message matters for the perception of responsive communication on Facebook.
References
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McAdams, D. P. (1983). Intimacy and affiliation motives in daily living: An experience sampling analysis. American Psychological Association, 47(4), 851-861.
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Parks, M. R., & Floyd, K. (1996). Meanings for closeness and intimacy in friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 13, 85-107.
Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, Y. A., Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 227-238. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.010
Peter, J., Valkenburg, P. M., & Schouten, A. P. (2005). Developing a model of adolescent friendship formation on the internet. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8, 423-430.
Petronio, S. (2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Prager, K. J. (1995). Psychology of intimacy. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
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Reis, H. T., & Shaver, P. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In S. Duck (Ed.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions (pp. 367-389). New York, NY: Wiley.
Reisman, J. M. (1990). Intimacy in same-sex friendships. Sex Roles, 23, 65-82.
Rubin, Z., & Shenker, S. (1978). Friendship, proximity and self-disclosure. Journal of Personality, 46, 1 -22.
SAS Version 9.3 (2010). Copyright, SAS Institute Inc. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.
Senchak, M., & Leonard, K. E. (1992). Attachment styles and marital adjustment among newlywed couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 51-64.
Sheldon, P. (2008). The relationship between unwillingness to communicate and students’Facebook use. Journal of Media Psychology, 20, 67-75.
Sherrod, D. (1989). Influence of gender on same sex friendships. In C. Hendrick (Ed.), Close relationships (Vol. 10, pp. 164-186). New York: Sage.
Stephen, T, D., & Harrison, T. M, (1985). Gender, sex-role identity, and communication style: A Q-sort analysis of behavioral differences. Communication Research Reports, 2, 53-61.
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Schouten, A. P. (2006). Friend networking websites and their relationship to adolescents' well-being and self-esteem. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 9, 584-590.
Walther, J. B. (1992). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research 19(1), 52–90.
Walther, J. B. (1995). Relational aspects of computer-mediated communication: Experimental observations over time. Organizational Science, 6(2), 186–203.
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication research, 23(1), 3-43.
Wood, J. T. (2000). Relational Communication (2nd ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Youniss, J., & Haynie, D. L. (1992). Friendship in adolescence. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 13, 59-66.
Altman, I., & Taylor, D. A. (1973). Social penetration: Development of interpersonal relationships. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Aries, E. J., & Johnson, F. L. (1983). Close friendship in adulthood: Conservational content between same-sex friends. Sex Roles, 9, 1183-96.
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). Need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497-529.
Berndt, J. (1982). Features and effects of friendship in early adolescence. Child Development, 53, 1447-1460.
Bond, B. J. (2009). He posted, she posted: gender differences in self-disclosure on social network sites. Rocky Mountain Communication Review, 6(2), 29-37.
Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social networking web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34, 1303-1314. doi:10.1177/0146167208320061
Buhrke, R., & Fuqua, D. (1987). Sex differences in same- and cross-sex supportive relationships. Sex Roles, 17, 339-352.
Buhrmester, D., & Prager, K. (1995). Patterns and functions of self-disclosure. In K. J. Rotenburg (Ed.), Disclosure processes in children and adolescents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burleson, B. R. (2003). Experience and effects of emotional support: What the study of cultural and gender differences can tell us about close relationships, emotion, and interpersonal communication. Personal Relationships, 10, 1-23.
Burleson, B. (2009). Understanding the outcomes of supportive communication: A dual process approach. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26(1), 21-38. doi: 10.1177/0265407509105519
Caldwell, M. A., & Peplau, L. A. (1982). Sex differences in same-sex friendship. Sex Roles, 8(7), 721-732.
Canary, D. J., & Emmers-Sommer, T. M. (1997). Sex and gender differences in personal relationships. New York: Guilford.
Dindia, K., & Allen, M. (1992). Sex differences in self-disclosure: A meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 112(1), 106-124.
Dolgin, K. G., & Minowa, N. (1997). Gender differences in self-presentation: A comparison of the roles of flatteringness and intimacy in self-disclosure to friends. Sex Roles, 36, 371-380.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends”: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.
IBM Corp. Released 2011. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp
Joiner, R., Gavin, J., Brosnan, M., Cromby, J., Gregory, H., Guiller, J., & Moon, A. (2012). Gender, internet experience, internet identification, and internet anxiety: a ten-year followup. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(7), 370-372.
Jourard, S. M., & Lasakow, P. (1958). Some factors in self-disclosure. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 56(1), 91-98.
Jourard, S. M. (1959). Self-disclosure and other-cathexis. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 428–431.
Laurenceau, J. P., Barrett, L. F., & Pietromonaco, P. R. (1998). Intimacy as an interpersonal process: The importance of self-disclosure, partner disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness in interpersonal exchanges. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(5), 1238-1251.
Laurenceau, J., Barrett, L. F., & Rovine, M. J. (2005). The interpersonal process model of intimacy in marriage: A daily-diary and multilevel modeling approach. Journal of Family Psychology, 19(2), 314-323. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.19.2.314
Ledbetter, A. M., Mazer, J. P., DeGroot, J. M., Mao, Y., Meyer, K. R., & Swafford, B. (2011). Attitudes toward online social connection and self-disclosure as predictors of Facebook communication and relational closeness. Communication Research, 38(1), 27-53. doi:10.1177/0093650210365537
Lippert, T., & Prager, K. J. (2001). Daily experiences of intimacy: A study of couples. Personal Relationships, 8(3), 283-298.
Manago, A. M., Taylor, T., & Greenfield, P. M. (2012). Me and my 400 friends: Anatomy of college students’ Facebook networks, their communication patterns, and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 369-380. doi:10.1037/a0026338
McAdams, D. P. (1983). Intimacy and affiliation motives in daily living: An experience sampling analysis. American Psychological Association, 47(4), 851-861.
Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. CyberPsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13, 357-364. doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0257
Parks, M. R., & Floyd, K. (1996). Meanings for closeness and intimacy in friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 13, 85-107.
Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, Y. A., Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 227-238. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.010
Peter, J., Valkenburg, P. M., & Schouten, A. P. (2005). Developing a model of adolescent friendship formation on the internet. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8, 423-430.
Petronio, S. (2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Prager, K. J. (1995). Psychology of intimacy. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Reis, H. T., Clark, M. S., & Holmes, J. G. (2004). Perceived partner responsiveness as an organizing construct in the study of intimacy and closeness. In D. Mashek & A. Aron (Eds.), Handbook of closeness and intimacy (pp. 201–225). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reis, H. T., & Patrick, B. C. (1996). Attachment and intimacy: Component processes. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 523–563). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Reis, H. T., & Shaver, P. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In S. Duck (Ed.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions (pp. 367-389). New York, NY: Wiley.
Reisman, J. M. (1990). Intimacy in same-sex friendships. Sex Roles, 23, 65-82.
Rubin, Z., & Shenker, S. (1978). Friendship, proximity and self-disclosure. Journal of Personality, 46, 1 -22.
SAS Version 9.3 (2010). Copyright, SAS Institute Inc. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.
Senchak, M., & Leonard, K. E. (1992). Attachment styles and marital adjustment among newlywed couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 51-64.
Sheldon, P. (2008). The relationship between unwillingness to communicate and students’Facebook use. Journal of Media Psychology, 20, 67-75.
Sherrod, D. (1989). Influence of gender on same sex friendships. In C. Hendrick (Ed.), Close relationships (Vol. 10, pp. 164-186). New York: Sage.
Stephen, T, D., & Harrison, T. M, (1985). Gender, sex-role identity, and communication style: A Q-sort analysis of behavioral differences. Communication Research Reports, 2, 53-61.
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Schouten, A. P. (2006). Friend networking websites and their relationship to adolescents' well-being and self-esteem. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 9, 584-590.
Walther, J. B. (1992). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research 19(1), 52–90.
Walther, J. B. (1995). Relational aspects of computer-mediated communication: Experimental observations over time. Organizational Science, 6(2), 186–203.
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication research, 23(1), 3-43.
Wood, J. T. (2000). Relational Communication (2nd ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Youniss, J., & Haynie, D. L. (1992). Friendship in adolescence. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 13, 59-66.
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