The Importance Of Long Distance Relationships

How does a long distance relationship maintain itself? It seems so complicated and conflict oriented to some, but with the use of technology, these can be diminished. Even though, this is a puzzling idea to many, it is eye opening within scholarly research and thought processes. Media has changed so much in our society and it is only expanding as the days go on; college students use technology everyday, which makes them a dominant group to focus on in this long distance relationship research essay. A long distance relationship relies on this media for maintenance within in the relationship, as well as, for conflict resolution, focusing on the three areas of satisfaction, intimacy, and location. The three areas that will be focused on is satisfaction,

Location plays a continuously large role in long distance relationships. These couples “live in distal sites for days or weeks, reunite for a short time, and then separate again” (Pistole, C., Roberts, A., Mosko J. 2010). When conflicts arise the couples must be able to “strategically manage [their] conflicts” (Jiang, C. & Hancock, J. 2013), even though their locations are so distanced from one another. Scholars have researched the relationship between distance and conflicts, and with that, have came to the conclusion that, “geographic separation leads to restricted communication, reduced interdependence, and heightened uncertainty about the future of the relationship, all of which complicate relationship maintenance” (Jiang, C., & Hancock, J. 2013). Ongoing, long distance relationships are said to, today, to have a higher quality of communication and be more in love than those that have a close proximity (Maguire, K. & Kinney, T. 2010). Media has truly changed the way people communicate through distance, and with that, media allows college long distance romantic relationships to talk all the

Satisfaction is important within individual well-being, but also in many other areas including college romantic relationships. College students are going through a lot within these years, therefore, if they are in a relationship, long or not, satisfaction is necessary. In a long distance relationship scholars have predicted that “lower satisfaction predicted LDR breakups, whereas satisfaction was related to reliable alliance, which is similar to commitment (Pistole, C., Roberts, A., & Mosko, J. 2010). This research emphasized that satisfaction levels lead to breakups in a long distance relationship, not stating anything about a normal relationship that is geographically close; this leads to the idea of how geographic location is a primary factor in satisfaction levels. Continuing, when conflicts do arise, the conflict resolution regarding satisfaction focuses on, “frequency of mediated communication” (Brody, 2013). With mediated communication, the individuals in the relationship can become much more satisfied than they were before, therefore, resolving their