Download pdf
Dependence on the Internet Intensifies the Social Division of Emotional Expression
- 1 Dongyang Middle School
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
As the Internet continues to expand, social media has progressively integrated into daily life, leading to a growing reliance on the emotional articulation and social interactions it facilitates. However, this over-reliance has led to issues in authentic emotional expression among groups and deep social interactions between individuals, forming social divisions. This study, utilizing a comprehensive literature review, data analysis, and additional methodologies, concludes that Internet dependency significantly influences emotional expression across diverse age demographics, genders, and professional backgrounds. The analysis reveals that individuals tend to express emotions more on the Internet than in real life, leading to a decline in face-to-face interaction skills, especially among adolescents. This study concludes that Internet dependence can lead to self-isolation, where individuals prefer online communication, thereby reinforcing dependence on the Internet. Over time, communities that depend on emotional expression in digital environments expand, leading to a decline in emotional articulation and empathy in face-to-face interactions. As this demographic increases, a greater segment favors social media platforms, thereby exacerbating social fragmentation. While emphasizing the development of social media, this paper also stresses the importance of authentic social interaction.
Keywords
Internet dependence, emotional expression, social division
[1]. Young, K. S. (1998). Caught in the Net: How to Recognize the Signs of Internet Addiction—and a Winning Strategy for Recovery. John Wiley & Sons.
[2]. Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction Ritual. Anchor Books.
[3]. Blau, P. M. (1977). Inequality and Heterogeneity. Free Press.
[4]. Caplan, S. E. (2002). A structural model of Internet dependence: Testing the theory of problematic Internet use on a college student sample. Psychological Reports, 91(3), 567-583.
[5]. Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2011). Online social networking and addiction—A review of the psychological literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8(9), 3528-3552.
[6]. Turel, O., & Qahri-Saremi, H. (2016). Online social networking and academic performance: The mediating role of procrastination. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 221-230.
[7]. Zhang, Xiaoming, & Li, Xiaodong. (2010). Analysis of the Current Status and Influencing Factors of Internet Dependence among Chinese Adolescents. Chinese Journal of Mental Health, 24(4), 267-270.
[8]. Wang, Lihua. (2015). Study on the Alienation of Emotional Expression of College Students in the Online Environment. Education and Vocation, 12, 102-104.
[9]. Zhao, Gang. (2012). Current Status and Trends of Social Stratification in China. Sociological Research, 1, 56-72.
[10]. Li, Hua. (2018). Internet Dependence and Social Stratification: An Analysis Based on Social Network Theory. Chinese Social Sciences, 1, 132-145.
Cite this article
Jin,Q. (2025). Dependence on the Internet Intensifies the Social Division of Emotional Expression. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,80,9-14.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).