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Adolescent Emotional Expression on Social Media: A Data Donation Study Across Three European Countries
Kaitlin Fitzgerald1, Laura Vandenbosch2, Toon Tabruyn2
1Cornell University (College of Human Ecology), Ithaca, NY USA.
Affective Science
|December 9, 2024
Summary
Adolescents predominantly display positive emotions on social media across platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. However, these online emotional expressions did not correlate with their overall life satisfaction.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Media Studies
- Adolescent Development
Background:
- Social media is a primary communication channel for adolescents.
- Understanding adolescents' online emotional expression is crucial for mental health research.
- Previous research has not fully captured real-time, platform-specific emotional displays.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how adolescents express emotions on social media platforms (Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok).
- To examine variations in emotional expression based on platform and content modality (permanent vs. ephemeral).
- To explore the relationship between adolescents' online emotional expressions and their self-reported life satisfaction.
Main Methods:
- A data donation study involving adolescents from Belgium, France, and Slovenia.
- Analysis of donated social media screenshots (bios, posts, stories) for textual and visual emotional cues.
- Correlation analysis between coded online emotional expressions and survey data on life satisfaction.
Main Results:
- A high prevalence of positive emotional displays (textual and visual) was observed across platforms.
- Girls exhibited more positive emotional references and expressions than boys.
- Slovenian participants showed fewer positive emotional references compared to Belgian and French participants; no significant link between online emotions and life satisfaction was found.
Conclusions:
- Adolescents tend to present positive emotions online, with gender and nationality influencing these displays.
- Current online emotional expression metrics do not significantly predict life satisfaction in adolescents.
- Further research is needed to understand the motivations and sociocultural factors influencing adolescent social media emotional behavior.
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