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Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S. (2012)
Intimacy in Long-Distance Relationships over Video Chat. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – ACM CHI’2012. (Austin, Texas), ACM Press, 10 pages, May 5-10.
Type: Refereed conference (full paper).
Additional materials: presentation.
Earlier version: Report 2011-1014-26.
DOI: 10.1145/2207676.2207785
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Abstract.
Many couples live a portion of their lives in a long-distance relationship (LDR). This includes a large number of dating college students as well as couples who are geographicallyseparated because of situational demands such as work. We conducted interviews with individuals in LDRs to understand how they make use of video chat systems to maintain their relationships. In particular, we have investigated how couples use video to “hang out” together and engage in activities over extended periods of time. Our results show that regardless of the relationship situation, video chat affords a unique opportunity for couples to share presence over distance, which in turn provides intimacy. While beneficial, couples still face challenges in using video chat, including contextual (e.g., location of partners, time zones), technical (e.g., mobility, audio/video quality, networking), and personal (e.g., a lack of physicality needed by most for intimate sexual acts) challenges.
Keywords: Long-distance relationships, video chat, intimacy.