"In this together": The importance of social networking sites as to the shape of personal relationships

• Applicant: Dr. Inken Sürig
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 328801143

In scientific literature the still recent phenomenon of Social Networking Sites is mainly discussed in terms of issues of data protection and self-presentation. SNS users are primarily perceived as sitting alone in front of the screen, as private individuals who put themselves on display for an uncertain public, and might betray intimate information about themselves. At the same time an alleged shifting of personal relationships from face-to-face interaction to the public of the internet is assumed to have effects on the state of these relationships. However, there is only little empirically verified knowledge regarding the actual dyadic generation and maintenance of personal relationships through social interaction on SNS. This means that also the connection between SNS friendships and personal relationships in the "real world" remains obscure. This is the focus of the proposed research project: From an interactional, microsociological perspective, I would like to investigate if and how SNS foster a restructuring of personal relationships - or if we are rather dealing with new technological means applied to well-established forms of interactive relationship building.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants