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Couples’ Use of Technology in Maintaining Relationships

Xiaolin Zhuo

Communication and Information Technologies Annual

ISBN: 978-1-78560-785-1, eISBN: 978-1-78560-784-4

Publication date: 23 February 2016

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the role of technology in relationship maintenance among romantic partners.

Methodology/approach

It takes a qualitative, inductive approach and collected data from in-depth interviews with 20 individuals who are married or in cohabiting relationships.

Findings

This study supports the extension of relationship maintenance typology derived from face-to-face relationship studies to technology-mediated communication, but highlights how technology use transforms the implementation of maintenance behaviors. Technology helps couples coordinate tasks and keep in touch with friends and families. Although technology-mediated communication cannot replace face-to-face interactions in relationship talk and sharing in-depth feelings, it plays an important role in redefining the ways in which couples interact positively, maintain mutual understanding, and secure the future of the relationship. Moreover, this study identifies a new maintenance behavior, communication coordination. These maintenance behaviors reflect a tension between maintaining connectivity and managing the boundary between work and home and between the public and private spheres.

Originality/value

This study builds on previous work on technology use and relationship maintenance, but takes a different qualitative, inductive approach to address the limitations in the survey research dominant in the literature. It helps us understand the advantages and challenges in maintaining relationships in the digital age and also explores the factors that influence the patterns of technology use in relationship maintenance.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Christopher Winship, Barry Wellman, Bart Bonikowski, Nancy Baym, Michèle Lamont, Mary Brinton, Christy Ley, Alix Winter, Connor Jerzak, Karsten Heil, Katherine Morris, and anonymous reviewers at Emerald Studies in Media and Communication for their valuable feedback on the previous drafts of this manuscript. The research described in this manuscript was funded by a Graduate Seed Grant from the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University.

Citation

Zhuo, X. (2016), "Couples’ Use of Technology in Maintaining Relationships", Communication and Information Technologies Annual (Studies in Media and Communications, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 31-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020160000011013

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited