Out of Sight, (Not Yet) Out of Mind: The Impact of Tie Strength on Direct Interaction and Social Surveillance Among Geographically Close and Long-Distance Facebook Friends

Abstract

Social networking sites are considered a valuable resource to maintain existing friendships even over considerable distances. The present study emphasizes tie strength as a crucial determinant for the use of interactive and passive features among 302 active Facebook users and friends of different relational closeness (close friends vs. casual friends vs. acquaintances) as well as a moderator for the impact of physical distance. As expected, tie strength affected direct interaction linearly, whereas social surveillance followed a quadratic trend. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed less frequent direct interaction between close friends and stronger surveillance of casual friends’ profiles as physical distance increases. These results indicate different functions in relationship maintenance for both behaviors as direct interaction aims at nurturing current relationships, while surveillance serves as a catalyst for promising future communications. As a consequence, physical distance influences direct interaction adversely due to emerging constraints but also contains informational value encouraging information-seeking behaviors.

Keywords:

• Online Friendships
• Relationship Maintenance
• Social Networking Sites
• Social Surveillance
• Tie Strength

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Valentin Belentschikow for numerous fruitful discussions, in particular at an early stage of the project, as well as Andrew L. Nicholson and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve earlier drafts of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation [GRK 1780/1].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation [GRK 1780/1].