Love's Digital Dilemma: Exploring the Impact of Social Media Monitoring on Trust in Student Relationships with Different Attachment Styles

The dynamics of a love relationship, especially those in a student population, have been profoundly impacted by the phenomenon of social media monitoring in the present day. With an emphasis on students with diverse attachment styles, this thesis examines how social media monitoring and the consequent online jealousy behaviors have an impact on trust in romantic relationships. This was be analyzed by answering the research question ‘How do attachment styles influence the relationship between social media monitoring, online jealousy, and trust among students in a committed relationship?’. A final sample of 151 respondents (mean age = 23.1 years, range 20-38 years; 76.2% female, 22.5% male), representing diverse sexual orientations and various lengths of romantic relationships (ranging from less than one month to more than 10 years) were selected based on students in a romantic relationship in which both people in the relationship actively use social media, ensuring a representative sample for examining the effects of social media monitoring, trust, online jealousy, and attachment styles. This study's conclusions, which are based on quantitative data from surveys given to students in committed relationships, show that social media monitoring positively influences online jealousy, and surprisingly also trust in a romantic relationship. Continuing with online jealousy that upsets the trust levels. Moreover, people who exhibit an anxious attachment style are more likely to perceive their partner's online interactions and behaviors as potential dangers to their relationship, which causes a more noticeable disturbance. However, this is only the case at high levels of anxiety attachment. Whereas, opposite of beliefs, the avoidant attachment style does not seem to influence the connection between online surveillance and jealousy. The analysis also emphasizes how social media plays a factor in fostering an atmosphere that makes it simpler for partners to participate in surveillance activities. In conclusion, while social media surveillance can undermine emotional closeness and trust in romantic relationships, knowing how each person's attachment style differs might help design approaches that promote positive relationship dynamics. This study adds to the continuing conversation on how technology affects interpersonal relationships and provides insightful information for future studies and solutions that try to build trust in the digital era.