“Tumblr is so Depressing”: Adolescents’ On- and Offline Sharing of Emotions

• In Event: CAT Interactive Papers #3

Abstract

Adolescents experience intense emotional experiences and fluctuations in their emotional state (Gilbert, 2012). Because of this emotional instability, they need to regulate their emotions (Olthof, 2005), for example by sharing their emotions with others. We already know that adolescents share emotions both off- and online. In addition, research (Choi & Toma, 2014) suggests that social sharing face-to-face might be better for one’s wellbeing, than for example on SNS. However, research on the process of adolescent social sharing via various interpersonal communication channels is still scarce. Therefore, this study tries to provide a deeper understanding of adolescents’ motivations to share specific emotions (both positive and negative ones), to certain persons (e.g. parents, other family members, friends, acquaintances, strangers, …) and via certain communication channels (e.g. talking face-to-face, calling, texting, posting on SNS, on a photo-sharing site, …) by conducting in-depth interviews with adolescents between 14 and 18 year old.

Authors

• Anne Vermeulen, University of Antwerp

• Wannes Heirman, U of Antwerp