Inspiring action through social media
1 Sociology/Education, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
2 Child and Family Institute, Boonton, NJ USA.
3 Psychology, Suffolk University, Boston, MA USA.
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Technology Research Archive, 2023, 2023, 05(01), 063–071.
Article DOI: 10.53771/ijstra.2023.5.1.0076
Publication history:
Received on 03 July 2023; revised on 21 August 2023; accepted on 24 August 2023
Abstract:
Social media provides the opportunity to reach many people and is a popular tool for creating social change. Many nonprofits and leaders of social movements use social media to gain support for their causes and engage allies. However, we know little about what type of content best engages potential followers. To better understand what a media user needs to post, one must consider the link between emotion and action and how this is impacted by emotion regulation when faced with issues of mass suffering. This study examined content that elicited emotions and action via the social media platform Instagram. We found promoting positive, emotionally charged images garnered a greater amount of social media activity than negatively, emotionally charged images. These findings suggest how social issue-driven organizations could better use social media to gain support for their causes.
Keywords:
social media; social action; inspiring emotions; Cyberpsychology; Communication
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Copyright information:
Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0