Is Breaking Up Hard To Do?: Managing Relationship Boundaries on Social Networking Sites

Abstract

The purpose of our research is to direct more attention to two relationship privacy boundary strategies: connection avoidance (i.e., rejecting friend/follower requests) and connection termination (i.e., removing existing friends/followers). A survey study was conducted with 222 college students that examined how participants regulated these boundaries with others versus how they perceived others who regulated these boundaries with them ("self" vs. "other") on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Participants reported using relationship avoidance and termination strategies more than they perceived others using these strategies against them. Overall, there were minimal impacts reported in terms of relationship changes due to others avoiding and terminating relationships. Site affordances partially explain these results, as none of the sites currently notify users when a friend request is denied or an existing friendship is severed.