A study suggests that you should include your partner in your personal posts on social media to counter the negative effects on your romantic relationship.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Kansas (KU) in the US also found that sharing personal information online results in doing more harm than good in a relationship.
The study is a first of its kind to examine in a strategic and systematic manner to weigh the effects of how a partner perceives their loved one’s social activity or online disclosure as positive or negative.
“Prior research has shown that self-disclosure positively affects offline relationships,” said Juwon Lee, a post-doctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.
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The idea was to explore whether it would remain the same in an online context where the data is shared with a large audience. The researchers found underlying conditions driving the negative effects of online disclosure.
The comparison was between sharing information about oneself versus the entire relationship. It was seen that posting personal information online affects intimacy in romantic relationships when a person only shares information about themselves. The research suggests a romantic partner could feel left out in this scenario.
However, the researchers found that one-sided sharing of information did not affect friendships.
“On the other hand, when you include a significant other in your post, perhaps as confirming a relationship status online or posting a photo together, we found that it counters the negative effects of online disclosure, increasing the feelings of intimacy and satisfaction,” said Omri Gillath, a professor at KU.
“This validates the relationship, and a partner likely would see their significant other’s post as caring and inclusive,” Gillath said.