The impact of facebook on Relational Satisfaction

In achieving of this argumentative essay, we have, as a starting point the study called the "The Impact of Facebook on Relational Satisfaction: Joint Networks & Joint Activities" whose authors are Lisa van Raalte, Aili Peyton, Meredith Trockman, Andra Kubulins, from the Department of Speech Communication, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu. In its preparation, there are two factors used as predictors of couples relational satisfaction: the perceived disparity in Facebook use between romantic partners, along with assessed overlap of their mutual friends. A first result of this paper refers to the size of a joint network on Facebook, which is positively correlated with relational satisfaction. Another result of the research consists in affirming the fact that there is no relationship between perceived disparity in Facebook use and relational satisfaction. This essay aims to detail the topic, by bringing practical arguments both in favor and against of these results. They will be supported by bibliographic work completed in pursuit of this essay. First, we wish to express our opinions on the findings mentioned above.We consider the statement: "the size of the joint network is positively correlated with Facebook on relational satisfaction" is true. To define the concept of "joint networks on Facebook" it is necessary to mention that these is composed of people who are confirmed friends of both romantic partners. We consider that knowing the partner's friends and family it is very important. In the daily routine, individual friends are those who provide support and protection, but when it comes for the couple, the joint network is the most appropriate for emotional outlet. As both have more common acquaintances, or more mutual friends, the more they manage to know better each other, they know how to interact in other environments than those in which they are accustomed. These help increase the feeling of trust among the partners. When the trust level tend to contract, there is room for negative feelings like jealousy. Regarding this issue, we make some research,focusing on aSonja Utz, Camiel J. Beukeboom study: "The Role of Social Network Sites in Romantic Relationships: Effects on Jealousy and Relationship Happiness". One of the first hypothesis that was tested by this study were "Trait jealousy is positively related to social network sites (SNS) jealousy." It is likely that someone who is jealous in real life will be jealous

in virtual life too. Another hypothesis of this study was "Monitoring behavior is positively related to SNS jealousy." Helsper and Whitty (2010) reported that in about 30% of married couples at least one partner has at least once secretly read the e-mails or SMS text messages of the partner. And the third hypothesis is "Need for popularity is positively related to SNS jealousy." It is considered that persons with low self-esteem, feel a higher rate of the need to be popular. All of the hypothesys were confirmed according to this study. Among the hypothesis that were not confirmed, are including the next three : "Relationship satisfaction is negatively related to SNS jealousy.", "Relationship satisfaction is positively related to SNS relationship happiness", "Need for popularity is positively related to SNS relationship happiness" Coming back to the second result provided by the paper namely "The Impact of Facebook on Relational Satisfaction: Joint Networks & Joint Activities", which is that there is no relationship between perceived disparity in Facebook use and relational satisfaction, we have to say that we do not fully agree. The perceived disparity in Facebook , or the fact that people who form a dyad do not have joint activities can often be topics of argument in a relationship. Joint activities can be defined as those in which couples use open communication while participating in an act with a high degree of interaction (Orthner, 1975). Marital satisfaction is greater when partners spend more time engaging in joint activities as opposed to individual activities (Holman & Jacquart, 1988; Orthner, 1975). The reason seems to be simple and in order to illustrate this, we gave for example the following situation: A couple, both of them have an account on facebook and both of them are facebook active. But, what makes the difference between the two of them is how they are using their account. One of the two uses this network mainly in order to be in touch with news, in order to learn new things about what is of interest for him. Secondly in the top of favorite activities carried on facebook is keeping in touch with one or more members of the family which are at the distance. The other member of the couple instead, prefers to spend a greater time on facebook and his activities are different,such as: looking for new people to be friends with, he enjoys a great deal to leave comments to the new photos posted by his friends, etc.. Taking this into consideration, we believe that the different behaviors of this couple's members would create a discrepancy between the preferences of both partners. In terms of preferences using this network, they act very much different and this can influence negatively the relational satisfaction. On the other hand, Facebook can be used as a perfect background for couples to engage in joint activities.

In conlusion, the Facebook social networking site, is now widely recognized to be a key source of information regarding a person because although this site provide users with a sense of intimacy and community, they also create a potentially permanent record of personal information that becomes a virtual information bonanza about a litigants private life and state of mind. In terms of using Facebook, it can bring both advantages and disadvantages for its users, represented by individuals in a romantic relationship. What are their options? They can either improve their satisfaction that they have when it comes to their relationship partner, creating a group of friends together, or by making as many activities together on the network. Or, in a bad scenario, their interaction on facebook with other people of the opposite sex may develop feelings, not so pleasant, such as jealousy. This feeling will led to relationship problems and ultimately it's lost.