Password and Account Sharing, Keys to Decades-Long Love, Study Finds
A study titled Couples, the Internet, and Social Media by the PewResearch Internet Project finds that adults in more than a decade relationship share email addresses and social media profiles with each other as a couple.
Sixty-seven per cent of those married for more than 10 years have shared password of their online accounts with their spouse.
Twenty-seven per cent share an email account together.
Eleven per cent shares an online calendar and social media profile together.
Overall, 10 per cent of those in a relationships admitted that the Internet and social media had a major influence on their relationship; 17 per cent said it has minor impact, while 72 per cent said it has no real impact at all.
For those who admitted that the Internet has an impact on their relationship, 74 per cent said that the impact was positive, mainly because trust between each other remains intact and that they do not hide secrets from each other. However, there are still those 20 per cent who admitted that the impact was negative and 4 per cent said that impact was both good and bad.
As for gadgets, 25 per cent said that one of the quirks of their relationship is still texting each other even if they are both home together.
Twenty-one per cent said that text messages make them felt closer together.
And for those couples who find difficulties having confrontations, 9 per cent said that they were able to resolve arguments by sending text or email messages to each other.
While gadgets have positive effects on a relationship, 25 per cent admitted that they felt that their spouse was distracted by their cell phone even when they were supposedly having a quality time.
Eight per cent said that they had argued about the amount of time their partners had wasted online rather than spending time with them.
Eighty-four per cent admitted that they were hurt and became jealous at one point about something that they found about their spouse through the Internet.
About the Report: This report is based on the findings of a survey on Americans' use of the Internet. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 17 to May 19, 2013, among a sample of 2,252 adults, age 18 and older. Telephone interviews were conducted in English and Spanish by landline (1,125) and cell phone (1,127, including 571 without a landline phone). For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95 per cent confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. For results based on married or partnered adults (n=1,428), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points and for cell phone owners (n=2,076) the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.