“You Never Know Who's Looking at Your Page!”: African American Male Adolescents’ Perceptions of Emotional Display Rules Online

Abstract

Social network sites (SNSs) are a powerful new context for adolescent development. We qualitatively investigate African American adolescent boys’ (N = 50, mean age = 15.8) perceptions of emotional display rules on SNSs. We present and discuss a taxonomy of display rules for anger, sadness, embarrassment, and excitement. Perceived display rules around anger and sadness were most notable. Participants’ understandings of display rules around anger were complex and varied, with many describing threats of violence as marking the line between acceptable and unacceptable expressions. Although youth stated that expressing sadness via SNS could garner emotional support, this was understood somewhat consistently as unacceptable. Overall, our findings suggest that perceptions of emotional display rules on SNSs are varied, complicated, and can be difficult to navigate.

Likes vs. Loves (and Other Emoji Reactions): Facebook, Women, and the Gender Emoji Gap in US Election Campaigns

“…For example, we know that public displays of emotions are regulated unequally in the workplace, with minorities expressing clear fears of violating normative expectations and reinforcing racial stereotypes (e.g., see the “angry black man” discussion in Wingfield, 2010). In fact, attempts to specifically distinguish similar emotional display rules among minorities on social media are now emerging (e.g., see Horner & Akiva, 2020). Like gender, ethnic-dependent public expressions of emotions are complex and contextual, but the possibility of such behavioral variations from a party demographics perspective introduces another factor demanding exploration.…”