“A Good Bell is Heard from Far, a Bad One Still Further” : A Socio-demography of Disclosing Negative Emotions in Social Media

Abstract

A survey study was conducted to explore whether certain demographic variables such as age, gender and education, and differences in individuals’ social media activity, explain differences in disclosing negative emotions in social media. The study found a relationship between age and the tendency to express and share negative emotions. The analysis shows that older users were more moderate in disclosing negative emotions than their younger counterparts. Instead, gender and education were not statistically significant factors in explaining social media behaviour. The study also shows that the more active the user is in social media, the more probably he or she also discloses negative emotions. The study underscores the importance of managing of negative social media content, and identifies several avenues for further studies.