The effect of positive and negative daily social media emotional experiences on older adults’ subjective age: Unveiling the negativity bias in WhatsApp groups

IF 4.5 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION New Media & Society Pub Date : 2025-01-16 DOI:10.1177/14614448241312525

Tali Gazit, Yoav S Bergman, Yaakov Hoffman, Gali Weissberger, Amit Shrira

{"title":"The effect of positive and negative daily social media emotional experiences on older adults’ subjective age: Unveiling the negativity bias in WhatsApp groups","authors":"Tali Gazit, Yoav S Bergman, Yaakov Hoffman, Gali Weissberger, Amit Shrira","doi":"10.1177/14614448241312525","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Social media has become instrumental for older adults in maintaining social connections, which are an integral component of older adults’ well-being. However, little is known about how daily positive/negative social media emotional experiences are associated with older adults’ subjective views of aging. The current study examined daily emotional experiences related to WhatsApp groups and their association with subjective age (feeling younger/older than one’s chronological age). Data were collected from 42 Israeli older adults who confirmed daily WhatsApp usage ( Mage = 74.30, SD = 8.39). Participants reported their daily WhatsApp emotional experiences in family/other groups and daily subjective age over 14 consecutive days, resulting in 557 completed reports. Results demonstrated that on days older adults reported negative WhatsApp group emotional experiences they felt older. Positive emotional experiences were associated with feeling younger solely when these experiences were reported in relation to family WhatsApp groups. Time-lagged models further indicated that only negative (but not positive) WhatsApp emotional experiences on a given day predicted an older subjective age the following day. The results underscore the significance of daily social media emotional experiences in shaping older adults’ daily subjective age. They also indicate the presence of a negativity bias effect in social media interactions among older adults.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"New Media & Society","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241312525","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Social media has become instrumental for older adults in maintaining social connections, which are an integral component of older adults’ well-being. However, little is known about how daily positive/negative social media emotional experiences are associated with older adults’ subjective views of aging. The current study examined daily emotional experiences related to WhatsApp groups and their association with subjective age (feeling younger/older than one’s chronological age). Data were collected from 42 Israeli older adults who confirmed daily WhatsApp usage ( Mage = 74.30, SD = 8.39). Participants reported their daily WhatsApp emotional experiences in family/other groups and daily subjective age over 14 consecutive days, resulting in 557 completed reports. Results demonstrated that on days older adults reported negative WhatsApp group emotional experiences they felt older. Positive emotional experiences were associated with feeling younger solely when these experiences were reported in relation to family WhatsApp groups. Time-lagged models further indicated that only negative (but not positive) WhatsApp emotional experiences on a given day predicted an older subjective age the following day. The results underscore the significance of daily social media emotional experiences in shaping older adults’ daily subjective age. They also indicate the presence of a negativity bias effect in social media interactions among older adults.

查看原文

微信好友朋友圈 QQ好友复制链接

本刊更多论文

积极和消极的日常社交媒体情绪体验对老年人主观年龄的影响：揭示WhatsApp群中的消极偏见

社交媒体已经成为老年人保持社会联系的工具，这是老年人幸福的一个组成部分。然而，对于日常积极/消极的社交媒体情感体验与老年人对衰老的主观看法之间的关系，我们知之甚少。目前的研究调查了与WhatsApp群相关的日常情绪体验，以及它们与主观年龄（感觉比实际年龄年轻/年长）的关系。数据收集自42名确认每天使用WhatsApp的以色列老年人（Mage = 74.30, SD = 8.39）。参与者报告了他们在连续14天内每天在家庭/其他群体中的WhatsApp情绪体验，以及每天的主观年龄，共完成了557份报告。结果表明，在老年人报告负面WhatsApp群情绪体验的日子里，他们感觉自己变老了。只有当积极的情绪体验与家庭WhatsApp群有关时，这些体验才会让人感觉更年轻。时间滞后模型进一步表明，在某一天，只有消极的（而不是积极的）WhatsApp情绪体验预示着第二天主观年龄的增长。研究结果强调了日常社交媒体情感体验对塑造老年人日常主观年龄的重要性。他们还表明，在老年人的社交媒体互动中存在消极偏见效应。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文去求助

来源期刊

New Media & Society COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

12.70

自引率

8.00%

发文量

274

期刊介绍： New Media & Society engages in critical discussions of the key issues arising from the scale and speed of new media development, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and on both theoretical and empirical research. The journal includes contributions on: -the individual and the social, the cultural and the political dimensions of new media -the global and local dimensions of the relationship between media and social change -contemporary as well as historical developments -the implications and impacts of, as well as the determinants and obstacles to, media change the relationship between theory, policy and practice.