Jealousy
Recent advances in technology such as social networking sites have been to blame for a number of negative effects within romantic relationships. Elphinston & Noller (2011) found that when both partners are members of a social networking site, increased dissatisfaction and feelings of jealousy with their relationship are likely to occur. Jealousy is defined as a threat or actual loss of a relationship due to an imagined or actual rival for their partner's attention Dijkstra, Barelds & Groothof (2010). Researchers have also been able to define numerous types of jealousy such as the following:
Types of Jealousy
Elphinston & Noller (2011) defined five major types of jealousy. Dispositional jealousy is defined as jealousy as a trait. Jealousy as a trait has been deemed as the most potent factor for online jealousy. An example of dispositional jealousy is anxious jealousy. Anxious jealousy is the constant fear that a partner is or has the potential to cheat. A state of jealousy is jealousy as a reaction to a jealousy-evoking event. An example of a state of jealousy is reactive jealousy. Reactive jealousy is the reaction after emotional or sexual infidelity has occurred. A type of jealousy that may fall into both dispositional and state of jealousy is possessive jealousy. Possessive jealousy is defined as monitoring in attempts to prevent a partner from gaining friends who could develop into a possible rival.
Reasons for Online Jealousy
Muise, Christofides & Desmarais (n.d.). found numerous reasons for increased online jealousy. The trait of jealousy however was the biggest predictor. Social Networking sites made access to partner's activities easier than ever. Partners are now able to monitor each other without the fear of getting caught or violating trust. In Utz & Beukeboom (2011), 70-80% of participants reported that they had never spied or monitored a significant other such as reading texts or going through personal belongings. However, they found that with the ease and unlikelihood of getting caught, around 35% of participants reported that they tend to visit their partner's profile daily through social networking sites. Another 30% reported they monitored their partner's profile daily.Being able to monitor who your partner interacts with, what they are posting, and who they are adding can all lead to jealousy without the proper context. Seeing partners interact with other possible partners or seeing friends you do not know being added have been examples of jealousy-evoking information found through monitoring. More time spent on social networking sites was also found to be a huge predictor of jealousy. A vicious cycle has been said to occur, “as time spent on Facebook increases, more jealousy evoking information is found which leads to increased feelings of jealousy, and in turn more time spent on Facebook to monitor a partner". The same cycle has been proven for self-disclosure. When a partner discloses more online, their partner's jealousy increases, so in turn they disclose more about themselves online and the cycle repeats. (Muise et al.). Other factors such as lack of trust due to previous infidelity also played a huge role. Dijkstra et al. (2010) found that a partner refraining from making a relationship status or adding "couple pictures" on social networking sites can also turn quickly into jealousy. Most of these reasons for online jealousy fit into the four most common jealousy-evoking situations.
Jealousy-Evoking Situations
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have also been said to have increased the amount of
jealousy-evoking situations. Some of the most potent jealousy-evoking situations Muise et al. found, included: a partner showing interest in another person, (typically a potential partner) a potential partner showing interest in a partner, a partner interacting with a previous partner, and vague scenes involving a partner. The themes found within these situations include accessibility to information, which is the ability to anonymously gain information that would have been nearly impossible to gain before public social networking sites. The second trend was in relationship jealousy, which is caused mainly by monitoring partner's profiles and finding jealousy-evoking information. The third trend found was Facebook as an addiction. This pattern included being unable to monitor the amount of time spent on social networking sites. The final theme found was social networking sites lack of context. Social cues and context are sparse on these sites, so whenever a partner is monitoring, the chances of them assuming negative things is increased.
Individual Differences
People with low self-esteem reported feeling more online feelings of jealousy than people with high self-esteem. High self-esteem individuals tended to report more incidents of monitoring and grooming (browsing profiles, and increasing the chances of finding information that will evoke jealousy.) Gender differences have been found in recent research. Muise et al., found that women tend to spend more time on Facebook, which leads to them feeling jealousy more often.
To learn more about online jealousy check out these other related sources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GgFPnB3PAU
http://www.today.com/tech/love-facebook-women-more-prone-jealousy-1C8376019
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6A1dk6HmAk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T6f2PHrXwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbAeXEjsPN0