Emotions, Everyday Life, and the Social Web: Age, Gender, and Social Web Engagement Effects on Online Emotional Expression

Emotional expression is key to the maintenance and development of interpersonal relationships (IR) online. This study develops and applies a novel analytical framework for the study of emotional expression on the social web in everyday life. The analytical framework proposed is based on previous ethnographic work and the self-reported measurement of the visual cues, action cues, and verbal cues that people use to express emotions on the social web. It is empirically tested, using an online survey of Spanish frequent Internet users (n=301). The analysis focuses particularly on how age, gender, and social web engagement relate to emotional expression during online social interactions. We find that both personal characteristics (age and gender) and levels of social web usage affect emotional communication online. The effect size is particularly strong for gender. This article illustrates and reflects upon the potential of the proposed analytical framework for unveiling norms and strategies in online interaction rituals.