1. Running Head: Social Media and Relationships
Social Media and Relationships
Marialaina Taldi
Iona College, PSY390A
Professor Jacobson

2. Abstract
Social media has become a very big phenomenon today. Within the studies I researched,
there was a variety of opinions on social media and relationships. In my study a total of 40
participants were randomly assigned, half females and half males. They were to complete a
questionnaire made by the Principal Investigator Marialaina Taldi, asking them to rate on a scale
of 0-10 how much they think the use of social media is considered cheating, and in relation to the
scenario what should be done in the hypothetical relationship. Although, none of my hypotheses
were supported they were all on the way to being significant just not exactly .05 like needed to
be proven significant. There was still evidence that social media is on its way to affecting
relationships in a negative way.

3. Introduction
Social media in the young adult world is beneficial in many aspects, but can lead to
personal problems in relationships. This study of the effects of social media on relationships is
very important, in order to possibly prevent relationships from failing due to the media. This
study will further our knowledge on how to fix or prevent problems in young adults'
relationships. The participants will be randomly chosen and asked to read a small vignette about
a relationship and social media usage, they will then be asked their opinions on cheating and the
problems within the relationship. “Social media relationship representation was also found to be
associated with lower levels of sexual infidelity, alternative partner monitoring, and partner’s
jealousy, as well as higher levels of perceived social pressure from friends and family for one’s
relationship to continue.” (Kelmer, Gretchen, 2014, pg.1) Social media has a put a significant
negative impact on young adults and their relationships today. This study uses two vignettes one
from a female view and one from a male view. Hypotheses within this study are: 1) Regardless
of gender of participant, those who read about males “liking” someone’s photo will feel it was
more acceptable than those who read about females. 2) Regardless of which vignette received,
male participants will indicate that it is more okay to reach out to an old friend on Facebook than
it is for the female participant to reach out. 3) There will be an interaction between the vignettes
read and gender of participant with regard to the item that assessed acceptability of reaching out
to an old friend. In addition to this, people in relationships as opposed to single people will be

4. more likely to identify the behavior in the vignette as cheating.
Social media has become a very big phenomenon today. Within the studies I researched,
there was a variety of opinions on social media and relationships. Previous research has shown
the negative effects from media usage in a relationship. " They researchers found that face-to-
face communication and telephone communication predicted strong relationships better than
email." (Baym, 2015, pg.737). People have said that relationships are stronger when the person is
right there in front of you, as opposed to being behind a screen,
Previous research, has also shown different solutions to social media's negative effects.
"We are increasingly surrounded by a sea of tweets, e-mails, wiki pages, videos and wall posts."
(Hansen, 011, pg. 43) In this article they are saying that we are all engaged in social media, and it
consists our lives. We surround ourselves and create a world filled with all kinds of social media
in order to survive. People are so wrapped up in what Instagram post they should put up next,
they forget they have other responsibilities in life too. "This article describes new tools and
methods to help researchers, educators, students, and administrators gain actionable insights
from social media data." (Hansen, 2011, pg.43) The study shows different ways to turn the
negative effects from social media to positive ones.
In another study on Social Media, Network Heterogeneity, and Opinion Polarization, Jae
Kook Lee studies the relationships between social media, social network service (SNS) network
heterogeneity, and opinion polarization. "The results show that the use of social media is a
positive predictor of the level of network heterogeneity on SNSs and that the relationship is
mediated by several new-related activities, such as getting news, news posting, and talking about
politics." (Lee, 2014, pg.702) There are ways that social media helps certain relationships in a
positive way, you just need to find a proper balance. Social media is good in the sense that

5. everyone can stay updated on what is going on, and what there is to do that night. Bur, being too
much involved in social media can stop you from being where your feet are, and just enjoying
reality.
It is known today, that the typical college student is going to be engaged with social media.
Whether it's posting a picture from the weekend, or tweeting how they feel at that moment;
social media is present. Now, I am not saying social media is the only reason people have
relationship problems, but it definitely is a contributing factor. The goal of my study, was to find
some possible solutions of the issue of negative effects from social media on relationships. In
another study I looked at, Orlando Kelm studies, "The article looks at these activities (use of
blogs, online photo base contributions, and video contributions to YouTube Channels) within the
contact of the social constructivist view on learning in general." (Kelm, 2011, pg.505) The study
showed students had positive results that came from the usage of social media, when Kelm
looked at the perspective of social constructivist theories of learning. The ability to use the
internet to assist in learning is very helpful. Being able to go online quickly and look up an
answer, or have the work you need done right in the palm of your hand is of course extremely
helpful. But, it also does take away the idea of hard work. If everything is just made simpler and
done for you, than students will never really know how to do things on their own. That is why,
although social media is positive, it can be negative in the sense that it is a distraction from
commitment in all aspects of life; relationships or work.
In other research I looked at, my point of social media putting a damper on personal
relationships was supported. In a qualitative study of personal media and social life, Marika
Luders studies this idea, "More specifically, the analysis looks at the use of personal media for
maintaining and developing existing social relationships and for extending social networks.

6. Qualitative interviews with 20 Norwegian adolescents constitute the empirical base. The analysis
explains how interaction takes on mundane forms, confirming the value of social relationships
between in-person meetings. Moreover, it is argued that mediated communication differs from
face-to-face communication, not by being less meaningful, but by enabling other forms of
disclosing practices. Mediated forms of communication, hence, have an influence on the
character of social ties and networks." (Luders, 2009, pg. 201) This further explains my idea that
relationships cannot be as strong when you are hiding behind social media, real love and
intimacy comes from face-to-face interactions. It is better to form relationships by physically
spending time with someone, that is how friendships form, and relationships grow, by really
getting to know someone. Looking at someone's page and talking to them over the web, is not
real and can turn out to be nothing you ever wanted to be apart of.
I feel as though people today, put so much emphasis on their Facebook and Instagram
pages, that they forget to just focus on themselves and their partner. When you are so distracted
by your cellphone, quality time with your partner is lost. Posting a picture on Instagram of you
and your partner is nice, but that does not represent how your relationship really is. In order to be
truly happy, you need to focus on your loved one and your life together, no one and nothing else
should get in the way of that.
Method
Participants
In my study a total of 40 participants were randomly assigned, half females and half
males. Next, they will complete a questionnaire made by the Principal Investigator Marialaina
Taldi, asking them to rate on a scale of 0-10 how much they think the use of social media is

7. considered cheating, and in relation to the scenario what should be done in the hypothetical
relationship. The overall mean of age was twenty-nine point five years old. The SD of age was
seventeen point twenty-five. The overall gender of the participants mean was five point fifty-
seven fifty. The SD of gender was two point seven three five. Fifty-two point five percent were
male participants and forty-seven point five were female participants. A total number of females
that answered the vignette was nineteen and twenty-one males answered the vignette.
Measures and Procedures
The Principal Investigator who created the study, Marialaina Taldi I created my own
measure for this study. I created a vignette with a scenario about cheating with the usage of
social media, and than came up with five questions asking the opinions of my participants on
cheating. That was then approved by Professor Cesario, and I was able to pursue my study.
Each Participant was asked if they were interested in the study and if they were over 18
years of age, and receive a consent form after confirming that they were able to the study. The
participants were randomly assigned and were asked to read the consent form, ask any questions
required to feel comfortable participating and than were asked to sign the form. After completing
the consenting process, the participant, were supposed to read a brief passage describing a
scenario where a couple is using social media in their relationship and one of the people in the
relationship is not happy. Next, they were to complete a questionnaire asking them to rate on a
sable of 0-10 how much they think the use of social media is considered cheating, and in relation
to the scenario what should be done with this relationship. Upon completion, the participant was
thanked for their participation and received the study debriefing.

8. Data Analysis
In this studied I used SPSS Version 22 to analyze my data. I used a two way ANOVA to
test my data. i was hoping for my alpha set to be less than .05. But none of my hypotheses
proved to be significant enough to be less than .05. I used descriptive statistics for my
frequencies and to analyze whether to fight or not, what is considered cheating, is reaching out to
an old friend okay, and relationship status. I looked for a correlation between whether regardless
of the gender of the participant those who read about males would feel their gender was right and
vise versa. I also looked at whether being in a relationship affected how the participant felt about
cheating, if they were to say it was cheating more than those single. In addition to that I looked at
whether regardless of the vignette received, male participants would indicate that it is more okay
to reach out to an old friend than females and vise versa. My results were not proven to be
significant, all on the right track but not quite there.
Results
Overall fifty percent of the forty participants read the Christophe (male) vignette and fifty
percent completed the Gianna (female) vignette. The maximum age was ninety-three years old,
and the minimum was eighteen years old; with an SD of seventeen point forty-five. Fifty-two
point five percent were male participants and forty-seven point five were female participants.
The results of the first hypothesis was not significant. The main effect of vignette:
Regardless of gender of the participant, those who read about males "liking" someone's photo
will feel it was more acceptable than females "liking" the photo. The total that read the vignette
was mean of five point seven five Christopher and five point forty Gianna. F=.085. Sig. .773 df:1
P>.05. The main effect of participants: Regardless of which vignette received, male participants

9. will indicate that it is more okay to reach out to old friends on Facebook than female participants.
F=.272 Sig. .606 df:1 P >.05 The total mean of the males was five point thirty three and the total
mean of females was five point eighty-four. Lastly, there will be an interaction between vignette
read and gender of participate with regard to the item that assessed acceptability of reaching out
to an old friend. F=.125 Sig. .726 P >.05. Although, none of my hypotheses were supported they
were all on the way to being significant just not exactly .05 like needed to be proven significant.
Discussion
In my study, each hypothesis I tested was on the right track but not significant. I found
that my results were quite interesting I expected for males to be more likely to say a woman was
wrong due to things like "double standards" and just the way society works nowadays. Usually it
is now considered to be "okay" if a male does something to their significant other, but if the
female does the same it is not okay at all. I also felt like, males would be more likely to say
females were wrong to reach out to an old friend but for males it would be okay. I felt like this
based on personal experience, and from friends and family dealing with similar issues. Men tend
to think it is acceptable for them to reach out to an old friend, when things are going wrong in
their relationship; and their female is not acting the right way towards them, so they look
elsewhere for comfort. I feel regardless of what is going on in the relationship, there is no reason
to go and talk to someone else when they should be talking things out with their partner. If a
female were to look elsewhere in this kind of situation I felt like would be looked down upon as
degrading, which is simply unfair. I feel like social media has really put a damper on
relationships these days, and I wanted to see how it effected males and females differently. I
looked at the difference in answers from people in a relationship as opposed to those who were

10. single as well. This wasn't significant either, which surprised me. I hypothesized that people in
relationships would be quicker to say something was considered cheating, than those who were
single. This was heading that way, but not quite significant. What was interesting in my findings
is that, when I looked at males and females and their opinions on reaching out, females pretty
much said the same as males as far as it was okay but testing trust. But those females who read
Gianna had the same feelings as those males. Which I thought was interesting considering, I
thought females would say their own gender was more acceptable than the opposite sex was.
Although, my hypotheses failed the idea that social media is affecting relationships today in a
negative way does show some evidence that is along the way of doing so in this study.
Considering my hypotheses do show some unfairness between the opinions of males and females
towards the scenario in this study. People today are so caught up in social media, Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter and texting that they do not realize what is right in front of them. They focus
too much on the screen and not enough on the person they claim to care about so much.
Publicizing everything you do with your significant other doesn't necessarily make your
relationship perfect. A perfect relationship I feel is one that consists of full on love, attention and
affection, which cannot be given with all the technological distractions in todays world. People
are failing to communicate properly, and just hiding behind a screen ruining their relationships
over applications that really are going to do nothing for you at the end of the day. My hope is
from peers looking at my study, even though there was no significance, they will see that social
media does have a negative effect on relationships and it needs to be recognized.

11. References