Valentine’s advice: Loose lips on Facebook won’t endear you to Sugar Lips











Alyson Raletz
Reporter- Kansas City Business Journal

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Divulging your significant other’s pet name to the world of Facebook probably isn’t a good idea — for you or Sugar Lips, according to psychologists from the University of Kansas.

Study findings, which were announced Tuesday, nail down in research what many would consider common sense: Telling all on social media networks could derail a romantic relationship.

People feel less special and unique when their romantic partners share private relationship information with their Facebook, Twitter and other online circles, Juwon Lee, a KU doctoral psychology student, said in a release.

But the psychologists found that the partner responsible for being too social with intimate details also suffers.

“For the discloser himself or herself, disclosing a lot may lead to lower intimacy and satisfaction because the more you do it, the more you perceive there are a lot of potential mates out in the world — so a lot of alternative mates that you can choose from,” Lee said. “That may lessen the value of your own relationship.”

(An aside: “For the record, Lee has her own Facebook account, and she said she’d likely qualify on the higher end of self-disclosure,” the release stated.)

The psychologists conducted three studies, including one involving the creation of mock Facebook walls. Study participants felt less intimacy with the wall of the high-disclosure user who “let it all hang out,” compared with the wall of the “circumspect” user, who was more reserved with posts.

KU said the researchers successfully predicted the results before conducting the reviews based on the findings of other real-world romance studies, according to the release.

Alyson reports about technology/telecommunications, entrepreneurship and sustainability.

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