Digital Pulse: Reimagining Motivations for Emotional sharing in the Social Media Era

Abstract

Social sharing of emotion (SSE) is widespread, yet digital contexts may selectively foreground certain traditional motives and alter how they are expressed. This paper proposes an integrative model explaining how traditional SSE motives are enacted, prioritized, and organized on social media. Drawing on SSE theory and perspectives on self-presentation, hyperpersonal communication, social presence, and media richness, the model distinguishes antecedent factors that activate sharing from structural conditions that shape how sharing unfolds and is interpreted. Heightened visibility, indeterminate audiences, and anonymity selectively foreground five digitally salient SSE motives, taking the form of identity signaling, risk-managed disclosure, networked problem-solving, validation seeking, and visibility mobilization. These forms are conceptualized as context-specific expressions of traditional SSE motives rather than novel psychological needs, preserving theoretical continuity while capturing how these motives are differentially prioritized and expressed on social media.