Emotions in the Digital World: Exploring Affective Experience and Expression in Online Interactions

This edited volume examines the ways in which rapidly changing technologies and patterns of media use influence, and are influenced by, our emotional experiences. Following introductory chapters outlining common conceptual frameworks used in the study of emotion and digital media effects, this book is then organized around four general areas highlighting the intersection of technology use and emotional experience: how people experience, and researchers measure, emotions in response to digital media use; potential emotional harms and enrichments resulting from online behaviors; the socio-emotional dynamics of online interaction; and emotion's role in engagement with online information. Chapters span a wide range of topics, including physiological and neuroscientific responses to new media, virtual reality, social media and well-being, technology addiction, cyberbullying, online hate and empathy, online romantic relationships, self-presentation online, information seeking, message sharing, social support, polarization, misinformation, and more.

Through a social scientific lens, contributing authors provide nuanced, interdisciplinary perspectives on these salient social phenomena, offering cogent reviews and critiques of the literatures and avenues for future research. In essence, this volume highlights the centrality of emotions in understanding how ever-present media technologies influence our lived experiences.

Robin L. Nabi is Professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has published over 100 articles and book chapters on the role of emotion in media processes and effects, with particular emphasis on media use and well-being and the persuasive effect of emotion-based messages. She co-edited the SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects and served as a managing editor of Media Psychology. She was inaugurated as a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2017.

Jessica Gall Myrick is Donald P. Bellisario Professor of Health Communication in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. Her research examines the interplay of emotional and cognitive processes in shaping audience responses to media messages about health, science, and the environment. Myrick also studies the role of media coverage of celebrities and pets in shaping our culture and health-related attitudes and behaviors. Her research has been featured by news outlets across the globe.