This study investigates how people use multiple media in their romantic relationships, as well as the effects of using multiple media on relational closeness. Revisiting media multiplexity theory, we proposed multimedia frequency, multimedia disclosure, multimedia frequency variability, and multimedia disclosure variability as types of media multiplexity that vary as a function of relational closeness and geographic distance. A six-week longitudinal study tracked 151 college students’ communications across media with their romantic partners. Results suggest that relational closeness is independently associated with each type of media multiplexity. Geographic distance moderated this relationship, such that geographically-close couples engaged in more multimedia frequency than long-distance couples, but the inverse was found for multimedia disclosure. Lagged analysis suggested a curvilinear relationship between multimedia disclosure and relational closeness in the following week. Results advance knowledge about how people integrate multiple media into their relationships and the effects of communication technologies on romantic intimacy.
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Taylor et al. (2018) studied this question.