How the Internet affects our emotions
Human emotions are powerful and difficult to explain. On the one hand, everyone has emotions, and we understand them to some extent, but they are very personal and difficult to quantify. Emotion research falls into different categories, from psychology and medicine to sociology and linguistics, and often overlaps.
Several studies, particularly from the social sciences and humanities, have attempted to understand the role of emotions and how they can be exploited to achieve specific purposes in communication, either directly or indirectly.
In today’s world, where a large amount of information is conveyed through multimedia (mainly video formats), it is increasingly important to understand emotions as part of communication, since emotions can be accessed in any layer of the message.
Certain properties of video and images cause us to react differently to written content. Maybe it’s the way visual moments capture us, or maybe it’s the multiple layers of information we need to process. Social media now favors visuals and moves towards video, or as internet commentator Ryan Broderick aptly puts it, “We are now firmly in a TikTok-first, and therefore video-first, internet “.
To fully understand video content, it is necessary to consider visuals, text, and audio. Video and the direct contact between people it provides is powerful. When we see someone speaking to us on video, we see their face, eyes, and expressions. It felt like we were very close. We may develop a relationship with content creators that we watch regularly—just like with other celebrities—because we get to know them by watching them.
Music in audiovisual content can also drastically change the way we perceive things and is a gateway to our emotions. The technique of getting us to root for someone in a movie or sympathize with their situation can be used in any type of audiovisual format—from a neighbor’s funny cat video to a political candidate arguing why you should vote for them.