Pictures capture memories or something more? Study finds that Facebook pictures destroy relationships
Have you ever thought who all must be watching your pictures that you post on your facebook account? If you are thinking that locking your pictures assures your security then you better think again.
Sharing pictures on your Facebook account could seriously damage your relationships with your friends, family and even colleagues, a new study has found.
According to recent research carried out at the University of Birmingham, the University of the West of England, the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, the subject matter and quantity of the pictures that you upload on this popular social networking website have serious impact on the level of support and intimacy within relationships no matter in which form.
“Our research has found that those who frequently keep posting photographs on Facebook and stay active online risk damaging real-life relationships. This is because people, other than very close friends and relatives, don’t seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves”, said Dr David Houghton, a lecturer in marketing at Birmingham Business School and lead author of the report.
“It’s worth remembering that the information we post to our ‘friends’ on Facebook, actually gets viewed by lots of different categories of people: partners; friends; family; colleagues and acquaintances; and each group seems to take a different view of the information shared”, he added.
It’s not only strangers that we target with our pictures on Facebook but also the people we add as friends, whether we know them personally or not.
The report after the study stated that partners who share more photographs of family is positively related to support, whereas partners sharing more photographs of friends is related negatively to intimacy.
The report also states that while benefiting brand awareness and critical mass of a Facebook fan page for a brand, organisation or cause,
sharing photographs may be harmful to those asked to participate.
“My advice for people sharing photos or links with a fan site is think twice and share once. Be cautious when sharing and think how it will be perceived by all the others who may see it. Although sharing is a great way to better relationships it can also damage them”, said Dr Ben Marder, early career fellow in marketing at the
University of Edinburgh Business School, who contributed to the research.
