Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

The Real and Perceived Effects of Social Media Usage on Relationship Outcomes

Social media platforms are one of the most common ways that humans interact in societies all over the world. The primary purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of social media on the outcomes of relationship satisfaction. We hypothesized that both real and hypothetical social media usage would associate with decreased romantic relationship satisfaction. This study consisted of 138 participants that were a convenience sample of Winthrop University students. Those participants aided in measuring perceptions of social media through completing social media usage scenarios and previously created questionnaires. The scenarios described the average day of a Winthrop University college student, including varying amounts of social media usage. Additionally, the research utilized previously created measures that asked participants about personal social media usage incorporated into their everyday lives. The participants went through the questionnaire online, developed for this research, by answering questions examining the actual and hypothetical impact of social media on romantic relationship satisfaction. From these results we can conclude that although people perceive that social media usage will have a significant negative effect on romantic relationships, it does not appear to significantly predict actual romantic relationship outcomes. Further, the data are very beneficial to the concept of how social media usage can influence romantic relationship satisfaction outcomes. That is due to specific predictors yielding significant findings. However, future research is needed to examine whether social media usage truly predicts romantic relationship satisfaction.