Sharing emotions through social media: a comparative analysis between the private and public digital affect cultures

ABSTRACT The research concentrates on describing how emotions are shared on private and public digital affect cultures. Two case study units are selected from private and public environments. Further, the Facebook page of both units is analyzed and data are collected using Netvizz.App. The collected data are processed using sentiment analysis and social network analysis; the former brings forward the type of emotions that are disseminated within the digital affect communities while the latter is used for emphasizing how the emotions flow among members. The results show that several differences occur between the two entities in terms of behavior and emotional content. The former provides the environment and supports members’ interactions; as a consequence, its members share neutral, positive, and negative emotions with the moderator and also with one another. The latter provides the environment and fosters members’ interaction with the moderator; as a consequence, it is the main emotional generator while its members act as receivers. These findings have heoretical andpractical implications; on the one hand, they extend the literature on digital affect cultures while on the other hand, they help managers understand how their stakeholders feel and how do they chose to share their emotions through social media.