Gender Differences in Emotional Valence and Social Media Content Engagement Behaviors in Pandemic Diaries: An Analysis Based on Microblog Texts

Abstract

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are individualized, which means that our emotions and behaviors would experience changes of different degrees. These changes have led to subtle connections within the social media context. This study concentrates on pandemic diaries posted on microblog sites during the lockdown period in China and explores the association between gender, emotional valence in diaries, and social media content engagement behaviors. Through computational methods, this study found that males and females tended to present significantly different emotional valence and social media content engagement behaviors. A negative correlation existed between emotional valence and comment behavior in female diary texts. Moreover, the pandemic proximity had a moderating effect on emotional valence and social media content engagement behaviors. This article attempts to explain the emotional and behavioral characteristics related to social media diaries and express concerns for the emotional health of disadvantaged blog users in the severely affected area during the pandemic.

How Male and Female Literary Authors Write About Affect Across Cultures and Over Historical Periods

“…In English-speaking samples, researchers have found that, while in pre-schoolers, there are no differences between boys and girls in the use of emotion words during peer interactions (Fabes et al, 2001 ), 6- (Tenenbaum et al, 2011 ) and 13-year-old girls (Aldrich & Tenenbaum, 2006 ) use more emotion labels than boys when interacting with others. Also, a recent investigation on social media content in Chinese individuals shows that women write more positively laden words than men (Feng & Ivanov, 2022 ), a finding that is confirmed by the analysis of Wikipedia editors’ comments in English (Gallus & Bhatia, 2020 ). However, one interesting aspect of studying the affective lexicon to understand the nature of gender differences in emotion is that it can be studied as a function of space (i.e., in relation to various cultures) and time (i.e., in relation to societal evolution).…”

Understanding Emotional Disclosure via Diary-keeping in Quarantine on Social Media

“…For example, Zhu et al revealed the anxiety difference between six types of quarantine (e.g., forced quarantine at home and centralized quarantine) [79]. Another stream of research centered on the changes of emotions where interesting changing patterns usually hide [17,30,50]. For example, Cao et al uncovered emotional evolution during each phase of Wuhan lockdown including the incubation phase, explosive phase, declining phase and stable phase [17].…”

“…However, this online exposure also brought unwanted attention and censorship. Previous studies primarily focused on Wuhan, including lockdown diaries in Wuhan or nationwide quarantine diaries during the outbreak period in Wuhan [30]. Nevertheless, this diary form exists nationwide, and the quarantine measures have been in place for an extended period of time.…”

“…Emotion disclosure on social media is a prevalent expression of mental well-being [33,45,61,66]. A rich stream of previous work has convincingly demonstrated that various emotions during the epidemic undergo changes over time [1,30,35]. Unpacking the dynamics of emotional disclosure can shed light on significant implications for tracking public emotional wellness and detecting signs of distress, thereby supporting health interventions and relevant policy-making.…”

The impact and management of internet-based public opinion dissemination during emergencies: A case study of Baidu News during the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

“…These measures have achieved remarkable results in containing the spread of the epidemic. However, COVID-19 has also significantly impacted the daily life and mental health of the population [ 4 ].…”