Social sharing through interpersonal media: Patterns and effects on emotional well-being

• Social sharing is the act of communicating with others about significant emotional experiences.
• This is the first study to examine the use and effects of interpersonal media in social sharing.
• College students used the media for about 70% of their social sharing.
• They selected media whose affordances could meet their psychological needs.
• Social sharing through the media substantially impacted sharers’ affect.

Social sharing is the act of discussing significant emotional events with others. Using a daily diary methodology, this study investigated (1) patterns of media use for social sharing; and (2) effects of mediated social sharing on sharers’ emotions. Results show that easily accessible and non-intrusive media (i.e., texting, Twitter) were more likely to be used for sharing positive than negative events, and intrusive and rich media (i.e., phone calling) were more likely to be used for sharing negative than positive events. Highly intense positive events were more likely to be shared via Twitter than low-intensity positive events, and highly intense negative events were more likely to be shared face-to-face than low-intensity negative events. Regardless of the medium used, people experienced increased positive affect after sharing positive events, and increased negative affect after sharing negative events. The results extend the social sharing framework, and advance the media use and effects literature.