Abstract
Many couples live a portion of their lives being separated
from each other as part of 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 affords a unique opportunity for couples to share
presence over distance, which in turn provides intimacy and
reduced idealization. While beneficial, couples still face
challenges in using video, including contextual (e.g.,
location of partners, time zone differences), technical (e.g.,
mobility, audio and video quality, networking), and
personal (e.g., a lack of true physicality needed by most in
order to support intimate sexual acts) challenges.
Refereed
No
