Exploring the Effects of Personal Levels of Depression and Anger on Individual Online Social Network Activities

摘要

Online Social Networks (OSNs) are becoming deeply embedded into our society. Due to this widespread interaction it is not surprising that OSNs have been commonly linked to some of the most positive and most negative events in recent years. This study investigates the effects of self-reported relative levels of depression and anger on the intent to participate in four specific OSN activities: 1) posting personal content, 2) posting responses to others' content, 3) viewing others' content, and 4) communicating directly with others. A large sample (n=1466) survey utilizing monetary incentives was conducted at a single large (> 50000 potential respondents) US university. Although future research is needed to fully characterize these relationships, the study yielded intriguing results. Depression was found to be positively associated with participation in all activities except communicating directly with others while anger was positively associated with participation in all four OSN activities studied.