Bits of emotion The process and outcomes of sharing emotions online

Is sharing emotions on social media bad for your emotions? This question has raised concern in parents, educators, the media, and the general public. This dissertation proposes that the academic field and the current societal debate may benefit from asking a more specific question: What constitutes online emotion sharing, and which underlying mechanisms may explain the emotional outcomes of both online sharing and receiving feedback online? With this question in mind, this dissertation takes a deeper look into the process of online sharing of emotion (SSE) with two main aims. First, it provides a conceptualization of online SSE and presents a basic three-phased communication model of online SSE: SSE initiation, feedback to SSE, and the initiator’s reaction to this feedback (Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Tan & Verlegh, 2015). Second, it empirically examines outcomes throughout the three phases of online SSE with a focus on the sharer. A key finding is that online SSE may lead to beneficial outcomes such as emotion regulation of negative emotions. A second relevant finding is that effects of feedback to SSE may depend on the dynamics of the emotional event which triggered the emotion. A third relevant finding is that these effects may persist through time. The findings of this dissertation bring nuance to the initial critiques, finding that people generally confide in their online social networks when undergoing an emotional event of significance. Instead of being a superficial ‘band-aid’ for our negative feelings, online supportive messages have the potential of making users feel better bit by bit.