Everyday digital emotion regulation on social media: exploring the use of platform affordances to support subjective well-being

Thesis

There has been sustained public and academic concern about the emotional effects of social media on its users. While platforms have focused on removing content that is illegal or harmful at scale, the emotional impact of social media at the individual level remains largely unaddressed. Recent research shows that users experience harm in highly subjective and context-dependent ways, yet platform tools for managing this remain generalised and insufficiently adaptable.

This thesis brings together insights from media effects research and emotion regulation theory to examine how users manage subjectively harmful experiences on social media, and how platform design might better support them in doing so. A mixed-methods approach was used across several studies, each engaging with a different user population and platform context. This was not done to compare user groups directly, but to demonstrate that the lack of customisable, user-centred moderation tools is a systemic issue affecting a wide range of users.

Chapter 4 presents findings from a national survey examining the relationship between media exposure, psychological disposition, and emotional harm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model helped explain variation in responses, it also highlighted the complexity of measuring media harm at scale. Chapter 5 draws on qualitative interviews with survivors of sexual assault to examine how they experience and attempt to manage social media post-trauma, showing a need for more flexible, trauma-sensitive affordances. Chapter 6 focuses on women researchers using Academic Twitter, exploring the emotional effects of comparison and the strategies users employ to manage them, often in the absence of helpful moderation tools. Finally, Chapter 7 builds on the findings of Chapter 6 with a follow-up survey and prototype design study that explores user evaluations of a set of emotion regulation-informed moderation tools. These tools were positively received, particularly for their flexibility and alignment with users’ own emotional coping strategies.

Together, these studies show that users are not passive recipients of content but active agents in managing their emotional experiences online. However, current platform designs rarely support this reality. By drawing on both the Process Model of Emotion Regulation and the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model, this thesis offers a new framework for thinking about how digital platforms might better support emotional well-being. It contributes to the growing field of digital emotion regulation by arguing for moderation tools that are not only scalable, but sensitive to individual differences and user-defined needs.

Authors: Tinsman, C

• Alternative title: Everyday digital emotion regulation on social media
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-no6kdo5kn
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: emotional harm; social media; digital emotion regulation; media effects; subjective well-being; personal moderation tools; user-centred design; platform affordances
• Subjects: communication and media studies; design; science and technology studies; human-computer interaction; psychology