Catalina Toma
Send SMS, Facetime, Social Media, E-mails, meeting applications and more. These are the pings of these notifications that remind us that technology plays a huge role in the way people communicate today. But how do these communication styles have an impact on romantic relationships? This is the question Catalina Toma answers in his research.
She is a teacher in communication arts, and her research examines how people understand and relate to each other when they interact through communication technologies. Looking at online meetings, social media and mobile computer science, she revealed something important: the way people use technology have an impact on the three phases of romantic relationships. These phases – Initiation, maintenance and termination – everyone faces challenges and advantages of technology involvement.
“I protest against the question that people often ask, that is to say if the technology is good or bad for relationships, because it is neither good nor bad,” explains Toma. “But in the 21st century, technology has its tentacles in many aspects of our romantic relationships, and it is very impactful. Depending on how it is used, it can have really positive or negative consequences. »»
Initiation
When Toma started looking for online meetings in the mid -2000s, the concept was still quite new. At the time, these sites had a bad reputation.
“People thought they were a crutch for the desperate, in the same way that newspapers were considered,” said Toma. “They were technologies or media for people who find it difficult to obtain face -to -face dates, so they had to resort to online meetings.”
But times have changed. Toma quotes a 2019 study which revealed that online meetings are now the most popular way to meet a romantic partner in America. That year and since then, online dating pushed before the meeting by friends, which was the most popular for decades.
In addition, online meetings do not succeed more or less than meeting in a more “traditional” way with regard to relational results, depending on the search for toma.
“The relationships that start with online encounters are just as satisfactory, just as good, just as likely to end with a divorce as the relationships that have started in another way,” she says. “So stigma has melted.”
Likewise, Toma’s research has changed. When she started watching the online meetings, her research was more interested in self-presentation and how people designed their profiles. She wanted to know if people had lied to their profiles (they did) and to what extent (not as much as you might think). The study was new at the time and revealed that people tended to stretch the truth with regard to more variable qualities such as weight or size, but remained precise for verifiable values such as age.
Today, faced with applications, algorithms and artificial intelligence that will take a trial date for you, she has turned her attention to following how the availability of these tools has an impact on people and their ability to meet romantic partners.
“Consider technology as a resource or a tool in your directory to manage the objectives you have,” says Toma. “For example, some of the research in our laboratory has shown that timid or more introverted or somewhat anxious people really like to have access to these technological tools. This gives them comfort knowing that they can be more controlled and strategic. »»
Then his laboratory examines how people’s comments receive algorithms for dating applications shape how they perceive themselves. This study is still very early, but hopes to approach confidence and self -perception.
Interview
The initiation phase is that when couples are formed, people meet, they go out, they experience and decide that they want to continue something. But after the honeymoon, the maintenance phase, that is to say when couples learn to live life together, to sail in conflicts and to engage in daily activities.
It is also the phase that Toma has been looking for the most in recent years. It considers the maintenance phase as one of the spaces where technology can be the most significant. She plans to send SMS to your partner throughout the day, calling them regularly, sending videos and more daily interactions as part of the node of a relationship.
“These small texts that people can think are meaningless or superfluous – like sending memes, jokes, funny stories, etc. – they are in fact quite important psychologically,” said Toma. “This is what makes people connected, that’s what makes them feel that they attract the attention of their partner.”
A study revealed that couples that engage in these regular communications are more likely to idealize their partner and more satisfied in their relationship. Another study revealed that the availability of these communication technologies has strengthened long -distance relationships, which have gained popularity over the past decade.
Social media is another major area of intrigue. A big question in many relationships is whether to go Instagram or Facebook official or publish on the online relationship. Although this may seem a superficial decision, it is actually quite important. One of Toma’s studies revealed that not only are people who are official on social networks are generally more satisfied in their relationship, but they were much less likely to break in the next six months.
Termination
“In the end, all romantic relationships will end,” explains Toma. “Either the couple breaks or divorces, or one of them dies.”
She says it is not pessimistic or hard, but to be realistic as to the life of a relationship. Although this has never been the main objective of Toma’s research, it highlights the results of other laboratories that examine what causes the disappearance of a relationship. Social media play a big role, in more ways than one.
Some studies examine technological interference, or Technofing. It is at this point that couples spend time together, but instead of expecting each other, they tend to their technology. Other researchers examine jealousy that can arise from the presence of a partner’s social media.
“An interesting study examines how often social media is mentioned in divorce procedures,” explains Toma. “And it’s quite common.”
There is also the question of what happens to your presence on social networks after the end of a relationship. Some people choose to make an announcement, others delete any reference to their previous partner and others leave any such.
“I think it is really interesting to study all the nuances of when and for whom and under what circumstances the technology is good or bad,” explains Toma.