An examination of relational maintenance and dissolution through social networking sites

Highlights：

• Conceptual framing from Social Penetration Theory (SPT) can be applied to provide understanding for the maintenance and dissolution of relationships through social networking sites (SNSs).

• Tie strength influences decisions to maintain, hide, or unfriend someone online, wherein stronger ties are more like likely to be maintained or hidden compared to weak ties.

• Regular use of SNSs influences decisions to maintain, hide, or unfriend someone online due to oversharing.

• Instagram is most prone to accepting oversharing as an appropriate behavior, likely due to norms of site use.

• The size of one's social network influences decisions to maintain, hide, or unfriend someone online, particularly in the case of oversharing and religious posts.

摘要

•Conceptual framing from Social Penetration Theory (SPT) can be applied to provide understanding for the maintenance and dissolution of relationships through social networking sites (SNSs).•Tie strength influences decisions to maintain, hide, or unfriend someone online, wherein stronger ties are more like likely to be maintained or hidden compared to weak ties.•Regular use of SNSs influences decisions to maintain, hide, or unfriend someone online due to oversharing.•Instagram is most prone to accepting oversharing as an appropriate behavior, likely due to norms of site use.•The size of one's social network influences decisions to maintain, hide, or unfriend someone online, particularly in the case of oversharing and religious posts.

论文评审过程：Received 9 August 2019, Revised 7 November 2019, Accepted 12 November 2019, Available online 14 November 2019, Version of Record 29 November 2019.