The emotional responses of browsing Facebook: Happiness, envy, and the role of tie strength

Abstract

HighlightsPositive emotions are more prevalent than negative emotions while browsing Facebook.Users are happier when a positive post comes from a strong tie rather than a weak tie.Similarly, users experience more benign envy when a post comes from a strong tie.The experience of malicious envy is independent of tie strength.

Social Comparison as the Thief of Joy: Emotional Consequences of Viewing Strangers’ Instagram Posts

“…The negative effects of general social media use on mood (Appel et al, 2016;Chou & Edge, 2012;Feinstein et al, 2013) have been attributed to the positivity bias on social media, that is, people's ability and tendency to present the most positive sides of themselves and their lives on these platforms (Lin & Utz, 2015;Qiu et al, 2012;Reinecke & Trepte, 2014). The current study tests if exposure to positively biased Instagram posts from strangers has consequences for positive and negative affect relative to viewing no posts or neutral posts by the same strangers.…”

“…Individuals engage in self-presentation and tend to select and emphasize the most positive aspects of themselves and their lives on social media in general (e.g., Lin & Utz, 2015;Qiu et al, 2012;Reinecke & Trepte, 2014). Although formal comparisons are lacking, scholars have argued that Instagram posts may be even more positively biased than Facebook posts, as the photo-enhancing feature may create a culture of polishing and perfecting (Lup et al, 2015).…”

“…Studies have tested the emotional consequences of viewing others' posts in general (e.g., Fardouly, Diedrichs, Vartanian, & Halliwell, 2015;Sagioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014;Vogel, Rose, Okdie, Eckles, & Franz, 2015) or manipulated other factors such as (un)attractiveness or (un)successfulness of the poster (Haferkamp & Krämer, 2011) or tie strength between the poster and the viewer (Lin & Utz, 2015). However, the current experiment specifically compares the effects of viewing strangers' positive posts with viewing neutral or no posts while keeping all other factors constant.…”

“…Viewing these positive posts may have positive or negative consequences for the viewer's mood (Lin & Utz, 2015). A growing body of research studying social media from a social comparison perspective suggests that browsing others' positive posts has negative effects on mood through envy and the feeling that others have a better life (Chou & Edge, 2012;Haferkamp & Krämer, 2011;Sagioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014;Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015).…”

“…On social media, individuals will predominantly encounter positive posts, as people tend to present the most positive sides of themselves and their lives on these platforms (Lin & Utz, 2015;Qiu, Lin, Leung, & Tov, 2012;Reinecke & Trepte, 2014). Viewing these positive posts may have positive or negative consequences for the viewer's mood (Lin & Utz, 2015).…”