Empathy Rituals: Small Conversations about Emotional Distress on Twitter

Abstract

There is growing research interest in the sharing of emotions through social media. Usually centred on 'newsworthy' events and collective 'flows' of emotion, this work is often computationally driven. This article presents an interaction-led analysis of small data from Twitter to illustrate how this kind of intensive focus can 'thicken' claims about emotions, and particularly empathy. Drawing on Goffman's work on ritual, we introduce and then apply the idea of 'empathy rituals' to exchanges about emotional distress on Twitter, a platform primarily researched using big data approaches. While the potential of Goffman's work has been explored in some depth in relation to digital performances, its emotional dimension has been less fully examined. Through a focus on Twitter conversations, we show how reading small data can inform computational social science claims about emotions and add to sociological understanding of emotion in (digital) publics.

An Online Acquaintance Community: The Emergence of Chinese Virtual Civility

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Digitizing Sociology: Continuity and Change in the Internet Era

“…Social media platforms have attracted attention for their mobilizing abilities, yet also have affective and emotional implication including fostering a sense of solidarity and emotional engagement within political movements (Papacharissi, 2015) and its important role providing support for people in distress. Brownlie and Shaw (2019) (included in this e-special) investigate public emotion work through everyday exchanges on Twitter. Drawing on Goffman, they analyse interactional practices which include empathy, love and affection.…”

Living in digital space: Everyday life on Twitter

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