Impact of the Consumption of Interpersonal Electronic Content (CIEC) in the Context of Romantic Relationships |
Technical, social and economic drivers have facilitated the growth of online User Generated Content (UGC). This has raised a number of concerns regarding the privacy and misuse of that data. However, very little research has been conducted to examine the consumption of content that is available through authorised or public channels, in the context of romantic relationships. This research investigates the sources used to obtain interpersonal content, the type of content consumed (e.g. current or archived material), the emotional impact on the consumer, and the efficacy of four proposed application-level features to reduce the consumption of content.
Barrington S, Sanders B
The research was conducted with a sample of 252 participants. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents reported to engage in the consumption of interpersonal content (n=225, 89.2%), the majority of which obtain this content from 2 to 3 different types of sources (n=112, 49.8%), e.g. social networking sites, personal websites and search engines. However, most respondents conduct this type of activity less than once a month (n=107, 47.5%).
The majority of respondents (n=117, 52%) reported to experience some emotional impact (positive and/or negative). Of those who consumed online content, 16% reported to have experienced exclusively negative emotional consequences, such as increased feelings of sadness, anxiety and suspicion regarding their partner’s activities. An analysis of the data did not find any correlation between emotional experience and demographic factors, including gender, age, the length of the relationship and the length of time single.