Social Media – An Arena for Venting Negative Emotions

Abstract

Social media is seen as transforming into a global multiplier through which emotional experiences are shared and strengthened. The essential factor in the ongoing transformation is that, although emotions are felt on an individual level, in social media, they can simultaneously be shared with and by others. Many studies have shown that social media is an arena for sharing information that reflects negative emotions. The theme of the paper is important as nowadays people have access to online discussions, blogs and even websites devoted entirely to sharing negative emotional experiences. After reviewing the literature, the paper explores and discusses the implications of negative emotions shared in social media. The main contribution of the paper is the anatomy of the diffusion of collective negative emotion in social media. In addition, the paper discusses the positive consequences of negative emotions from an organisation’s perspective.