Understanding relationship maintenance behaviors on instagram: exploring the role of relational mobility

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3199895

Growing number of research studies focus on relationship maintenance behaviors on social media. Given the prevalence of social media in today’s world, this study investigates the effects of relational mobility on social media behaviors using the investment model (Rusbult et al. 1998). Instead of relying on self-report measures about participants’ use of social media, this study utilizes data extraction from Instagram, providing an objective dataset of newlyweds. Specifically, the study examines the number of posts in which participants tag their partners (i.e., partner tags), the number of opposite-sex friends who are not common friends with their partners (i.e., exclusive opposite-sex friends), and the number of users that both partners follow (i.e., common followings). The results indicate that relational mobility does not predict partner tags although significant gender differences were found. Additionally, relational mobility predicts the number of exclusive opposite-sex friends when gender is not included in the model. However, including gender made the effect of relational mobility on the number of exclusive opposite-sex friends non-significant. Lastly, relational mobility does not predict the number of common followings for both genders. This study provides novel insights by examining the effect of relational mobility on relationship maintenance strategies on Instagram using objective data.