Smart phone use and romantic relationship maintenance in Singapore.

Abstract

Previous studies show mobile communication, like voice call or SMSes, can augment face-to-face interaction and maintain relationship (Weisskirch and Delevi, 2011). Smartphones, in particular, are gaining importance because of the media rich features they offer in addition to traditional mobile phones. Singapore has the highest smartphone penetration in South East Asia. Based on a recent Nielsen survey (2011), almost half of online consumers here own a smartphone.

This study employs a mixed method of a survey (241 respondents) and interviews (24 interviewees) to understand their smartphone use patterns (i.e. duration, times, most used features, and most important features) of attached Singaporeans aged 25 to 40 for communicating with their romantic partners and maintaining their relationship. It also investigates how they perceive the importance of smartphone communication for romantic relationships and their use of this device for maintaining various dimensions of Relational Maintenance Behaviour Measure (RMBM) (Stafford, 2010) (i.e. communicating positivity, understanding, self-disclosure, relationship talk, assurance, sharing tasks and involvement in partner’s network of family and friends) and conflict management (Gottman, 1994). Moreover, the study investigates how men and women in various relationship stages (i.e. casual dating, seriously committed, cohabitation, engagement) use smartphones to maintain love relationships and manage conflicts and also examines the gender difference in such usage patterns.