Relational Reconnection on Social Network Sites: An Examination of Relationship Persistence and Modality Switching

Recent research suggests that social network sites enable users to reconnect with prior relational partners with whom they had lost contact. The present study examines whether relationship characteristics and the total number of postreconnection channels used differ as a function of relational persistence and modality switching (MS) to face-to-face (FtF). Results reveal that partners whose relationship persisted reported more positive pre–loss-of-contact characteristics and greater modality expansion post-reconnection than did their counterparts. Similarly, partners who met FtF after reconnecting also reported more positive pre–loss-of-contact characteristics and greater modality expansion post-reconnection than did partners whose relationship did not persist.