274 Benefits and Maintenance of Friendships
a different pattern was found for using Facebook “sharing.” Interestingly, Facebook
“sharing” was negatively associated with friendship satisfaction, liking of the friend,
and closeness of the friendship. Both one’s own sharing behaviors and their friend’s
sharing on Facebook behaviors were negatively associated with satisfaction and lik-
ing in the friendship. This is inconsistent with research that finds self- disclosure as
an important part of friendship maintenance (e.g., Oswald et al., 2004).
The differential findings for McEwan’s (2013) caring and sharing Facebook
maintenance strategies suggest that self- disclosure on Facebook may function dif-
ferently than face- to- face self- disclosures. The Facebook self- disclosures measured
by McEwan’s “sharing” maintenance strategy reflected impersonal mass broadcast
of information rather than an interpersonal, intimate exchange. However, the “car-
ing” maintenance dimension included a number of items that reflected personal
and intimate exchanges such as congratulating people on their posts of good news
and sending condolences upon reading posts of bad news. Thus, the caring dimen-
sion included aspects of intimate self- disclosure. These findings together suggest
that self- disclosure on Facebook that is intimate and person specific, rather than
general mass communication, is predictive of positive friendship outcomes and
promotes friendship closeness. Similar results were found by Valkenburg and Peter
(2009), whereby instant messaging between adolescent- aged friends was predic-
tive of intimate self- disclosure and friendship quality. Other research has found
that Facebook communication strategies that allow for deeper communication that
includes self- disclosure and supportiveness, such as private exchanges, rather than
mass announcements, not only serve to maintain the relationship but also promote
escalation of the friendship to more intimate levels (Sosik & Bazarova, 2014).
The usage of these types of electronic mediums for maintenance may depend on
the closeness of the friendship. Yang, Brown, and Braun (2014) found that in newly
forming friendships, college students preferred using Facebook posts or text mes-
sages that were less intimate. However as the friendship closeness increased, then
instant messaging, phone calls, or Skype (computer programs that allow for video
conversations) that allowed for intimate self- disclosure became more prevalent.
McEwan and Guerrero (2012) had similar conclusions about CMC as a friendship
maintenance strategy. They found CMC as a form of maintenance was especially
prevalent in the more casual, newly developing friendships, rather than close rela-
tionships, where intimate self- disclosure might be more relationship appropriate.
While social networking sites such as Facebook are the most frequently high-
lighted as CMC mechanisms for maintaining friendships, there are a number of
other media that allow friends to engage in maintenance behaviors even when
they are not in physical proximity. For example, electronic communication via text
and voice messaging (Hall & Baym, 2012) and online gaming programs that allow
friends to mutually interact and compete against each other on a game while in dif-
ferent locations (Ledbetter & Kuznekoff, 2012) have been suggested as electronic
opportunities for friendship maintenance. For example, Hall and Baym (2012)