Using technology to unobtrusively observe relationship development

Abstract

Texting plays an increasingly important role in romantic relationships. Along with the increased use and impact of technology in and on relationships, technology provides new approaches to observe and study relationships. This study demonstrates the potential for using unobtrusive measures of texting obtained through mobile data donation for the study of communication behaviors during relationship development. In particular, we examine how texting behaviors change prior to relationship formation and during a relationship transition. Our analysis of 1+ million text messages that 41 college-age romantic couples sent to each other during their first year of dating demonstrates (a) the utility of digital trace data for studying romantic relationship development, (b) the importance of obtaining and analyzing actual texting behaviors when observing interpersonal communication that is frequent, fast, and variable, and (c) the need for more theoretical specificity in how and why different kinds of communication behaviors change as relationships develop.

OSD2F: An Open-Source Data Donation Framework

“…Another promising approach is the donation of existing digital trace data. Studies focusing on mobile devices have relied on respondents manually taking screenshots of the Screen Time function (Ohme et al, 2020), battery usage per app (Baumgartner et al, 2021), or downloading their text message history (Brinberg et al, 2021). Other studies used browser plugins such as Web historian (Menchen-Trevino, 2016), that allow users to visualize and donate their browsing history data.…”

Acquaintanceships (weak ties): Their role in people's web of relationships and their formation

“…Structural aspects, such as network size, composition (e.g., degree of homogamy, ratio of acquaintances to closer ties), and density (the degree to which network members know each other), may have implications for individual health and well‐being. With the increased access to data from communication technologies (phone logs, text messages) and social media, “digital footprints” can be increasingly used to study the structural aspects of acquaintance networks and their implications for individuals and their close relationships (e.g., Ghosh et al, 2019; Mac Carron et al, 2016; Striga & Podobnik, 2018), as well as the process of relationship formation (Brinberg et al, 2021) and relating (Spitzberg, 2019).…”

Introduction to the special issue on communication technologies and relationships

“…Three articles illustrate tantalizing, cutting-edge methodological approaches. First, Brinberg et al (2021) were able to retrospectively recreate partners' dating histories by collecting over one million text messages exchanged by 41 dating couples after they had been in a relationship for a year. This eliminated the need imposed by traditional prospective research of starting the project at the baseline point in time.…”

“…All but one has at least briefly considered a theoretical perspective or concepts in reporting on their research. Some of the theoretical views referenced are prominent perspectives such as: attachment theory (David & Roberts, 2021; Entwistle et al, 2021), social learning theory (Poulin & Boon), the relational turbulence model (Brinberg et al, 2021), media multiplexity theory (Macdonald et al, 2021; Russell et al, 2021), and socio-emotional selectivity theory (Macdonald et al, 2021). Other authors use less prominent or more narrowly focused theories such as electronic propinquity theory (Holtzman et al, 2021).…”