I Don't Care Much as Long as I Am Also on Facebook: Impacts of Social Media Use of Both Partners on Romantic Relationship Problems

This research investigated the impacts of social media use while being with a partner on the perception of relationship problems experienced by the other partner. The results from the partial least squares regression indicated that individuals who perceived that their partners used social media excessively tended to report a higher perception of lack of caring, loneliness, and jealousy. However, only lack of caring was found to be the key reason that significantly explained the intention to break up. In addition, the analysis of the moderating effect revealed interesting evidence showing that the perception of relationship problems associated with social media use of own partners appeared to be more severe for the respondents who reported that they used social media less intensively than their partners. Conversely, for the respondents who reported that they used social media to a greater degree than their partners, the impacts on the perceived relationship problems were significantly lessened.