In a recent survey carried out by Pew Internet, it showed that 67% of internet users in a marriage or committed relationship have shared the password to one or more of their online accounts with their spouse or partner.
This survey was carried out to ascertain Americans’ use of the internet. Specifically, the survey was done to find out American couples use digital technology to manage life, logistics, and emotional intimacy within their relationships.
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.
Some of the other results are shown below:
- 27% of internet users in a marriage or committed relationship have an email account that they share with their partner. Older adults and those who have been in their relationship for longer than ten years are especially likely to share an email account.
- 11% of these couples have an online calendar that they share. Sharing of online calendars tends to be most prevalent among couples in their logistics-intensive middle-age period (i.e. mid-20s through mid-40s).
- 11% of partnered or married adults who use social networking sites share a social media profile.
From the research findings,” As a broad pattern, those who have been married or partnered ten years or less have digital communication and sharing habits that differ substantially from those who have been partnered longer. Some of this is about timing— technology a decade ago was squarely in the pre-Facebook, pre-smartphone era, and just ten years into the development of the commercially popular Web. Those who were already together as a couple at the advent of a new platform or technology were a bit more likely to jump on together, as a unit, while those who begin relationships with their own existing accounts and profiles tend to continue to use them separately as individuals.”
On the overall impact of technology on long term relationships, these were the results;
- 10% of internet users who are married or partnered say that the internet has had a “major impact” on their relationship, and 17% say that it has had a “minor impact.” Fully 72% of married or committed online adults said the internet has “no real impact at all” on their partnership.
- 74% of the adult internet users who report that the internet had an impact on their marriage or partnership say the impact was positive. Still, 20% said the impact was mostly negative, and 4% said it was both good and bad.
For more information about the study, check out Pew Research Findings.
