SHS Web of Conferences 188, 03006 (2024) https://doi.org/10.

1051/shsconf/202418803006
ICDDE 2024

The Impact of Social Media on Consumer Sentiment

Mengyuan Sun*
One Direction Academy, M3C1V9 Toronto, Canada

Abstract. With the wide use of network media, consumers' information acquisition and communication
methods have undergone significant changes. Network media not only provides them with a fast and
efficient way to obtain information, but also provides them with a broader social space and communication
platform. Therefore, the popularity of social media has brought some negative effects, such as low mood
and depression among consumers. This paper will first study the impact of social media operation strategies
on consumer sentiment. Secondly, the author will examine how social media self-control affects mood,
which includes how users control their emotions and behaviors on social media, and the impact of this self-
control on consumer mood. This paper will discuss and study through the research methods of psychology
and sociology. Finally, this study aims to analyze the problem of information overload between social
media and consumer sentiment by focusing on the comments made by consumers on social media. At the
end of the study, the research results need to be summarized and analyzed in order to provide useful
references for social media platforms to manage consumer emotions, so as to provide useful references for
lawmakers, academics and practitioners.

1 Introduction such as information overload, authenticity of information,

ease of use of features and use of multiple platforms can
Using social media has developed to be one of the also negatively impact consumer sentiment.
primary methods that people in today's society may To reduce the emotional impact of information
connect, obtain information, and have fun as The Times overload on users, operators need to take measures. This
has expanded. Social media is a subset of social media study aims to improve the negative emotions and anxiety
platforms that let users create accounts, communicate depression caused by social media by paying attention to
with others, upload movies and photographs, and share consumers' statements posted on social media to conduct
content. The foundation of it is Internet and mobile emotional sentiment analysis. Through real-time
communication technology. People's social habits have monitoring of social public opinion and user sentiment,
changed immensely as a result of social media's broad it can also provide strong support for the government
usage and simplicity of use, making it an indispensable and enterprises to better serve the public.
tool for exchanging concepts, knowledge, and day-to-
day experiences. In the digital age, social media provides
a new channel for communication. Before, the only 2. The impact of social media operation
options for people to socialize were in person, over the strategies on consumer sentiment
phone, or through letters. Through the connections it
makes with people of all backgrounds, interests, and In the age of information explosion, people's time is
cultures, social media also provides people with an becoming more and more fragmented. Social media such
avenue to rapidly expand our social network. Like any as Twitter, Instagram, Wechat, Weibo, Tiktok are
other technology, social networking is not without its becoming more and more popular because they are
problems, though. On the other side, some people may diverse, rich and easy to use. For example, with the
disseminate falsehoods and incorrect information on popularity of Wechat public accounts, people used to
social media, which will have a negative impact on other spend a lot of time on traditional media to get
people and society as a whole. These individuals may information, but now they only need to pay attention to a
overly pursue vanity and comparison on social media few public accounts to get information easily. So, the
and seek out others' attention and admiration. Because of Wechat public account has become a form of "We
this, consumers must exercise reason when using social Media" that people like to browse. People also pay close
media to avoid having negative emotional effects. As a attention to Wechat public accounts.
new way of communication, social media has two sides: According to the CNNIC China Internet Report, the
on the one hand, if the operator adopts appropriate number of people using Wechat worldwide has exceeded
operational strategies, social media can positively affect 1.5 billion, and the number of Wechat users is huge. In
the emotions of consumers; On the other hand, factors the three months of operation of the public account, the

*
Corresponding author: funcheesesun@ldy.edu.rs
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
SHS Web of Conferences 188, 03006 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202418803006
ICDDE 2024

survey found that the number of articles read in the days psychological maturity and temptation at different ages,
after the publication of a significant increase. This shows leading to different self-control abilities. The over-55s
that the targeted content and users of Wechat public scored above average among all age groups, and
accounts remain basic, and the users are basically stable. compared with other age groups, they gradually gained
According to user data, the content quality and user control and were able to resist impulses and adapt to
needs of public accounts are key factors in attracting and social situations. Middle-aged people aged 35 to 44
retaining users. This shows that some public accounts scored the most, perhaps because they faced more life
can attract new users and meet the needs of old users [1]. problems and financial pressures [6]. It is easy to be
Display content has an effective impact on consumers. emotionally negative. This is followed by 15 to 24 years
By spreading positivity, these social media can old, when many big decisions need to be made, while
enhance consumers' purchase intention and loyalty, bring living in a fast lifestyle and fierce social competition can
positive emotions, and can also increase social media lead to confusion about the future, inner depression, and
mobile online payments [2]. Peter Drucker introduced depression. From the perspective of education level, the
the concept of "consumer perceived value" in the study of Li Qiaoling et al. shows that there are
1990s.The concept describes consumers' perceptions of significant differences in the use of social media in
the value of goods, and these perceptions determine different education levels, which is related to different
whether they buy goods or not. This concept includes knowledge levels, information contact and dependence
consumers' overall evaluation of a product's quality, on social media [6].
desire, convenience, and pleasantness. Rafael et al. point However, with the popularity of social media, people
out that by using a perceived value system, consumer at every cultural level are likely to be affected. The study
purchases and choices can be predicted and evaluated. Li found that undergraduate and graduate students scored
Weiqing et al. developed a consumer preference highest in social media use and used social media more
prediction model based on perceived value. The model frequently, and no significant differences in self-control
shows that consumers have an impact on the quality, were found among people of different cultural levels,
reviews and price of products, and these effects suggesting that these people showed an upper to average
ultimately influence their purchase decisions [3]. For level of self-control and were able to effectively control
example, some social media allow consumers to feel the their behavior. However, with the popularity of social
advantages and value of products by publishing user media, people at every cultural level may be affected,
evaluations and sharing experience, thus enhancing their and people may develop negative emotions that affect
sense of trust and security in these social media. Since their social and lifestyle. Therefore, frequent use of
most social media information is modified, embellished, social media is associated with factors such as social
or even exaggerated, it is easier for social media users to comparison and social isolation [6]. Consumers'
make upward social comparisons. Social media upward psychological empowerment is influenced by social
social comparison is when a person compares support and information quality, which leads to
themselves to others who are superior to them in terms information avoidance behavior. Perceptual overload and
of appearance, ability, etc., by browsing information on social comparison have significant effects on consumers'
social media [4]. cognitive dissonance. When people may be displayed in
the lives of others, it can lead to dissatisfaction and
anxiety about their own lives. Because it requires more
3. The self-control of social media is time and energy to process this information, it can also
emotional lead to anxiety and stress [7].
Compared with traditional media, social media has
stronger openness, interaction and immediacy, which 4. Social media and consumer
attracts the participation and attention of consumers [5]. sentiment information overload
Some researchers believe that social media use can make
people lack self-control and lead to feelings of stress, When people use social media too much, it leads to
depression, anxiety and other emotions. From the information overload. Information overload is usually
perspective of gender, according to the gender difference due to conflicts between individuals with limited
analysis of social media intensity, self-control and information processing capabilities. System function
emotion, men's social media intensity is slightly lower overload occurs when the complexity of the use of
than that of women, but the difference is not obvious. technical resources exceeds the addition of new
This shows that men and women rely on social media to functions [8]. A survey of 298 social media users by the
a similar degree in modern life, perhaps due to the University of Salford found that 66% felt anxious after
popularity of the Internet, people can use mobile phones using social media [8]. The effects of social media on
at any time, a variety of social media emerge in an emotions can be studied medically, psychologically, and
endless stream, can meet the needs of men and women, sociologically. Current research has made some progress
and increasingly become a daily necessity. In terms of on the effects of anxiety on social media users. However,
self-control, men scored significantly better than women many researchers classify social media anxiety as
[6]. Thus, women are more emotionally affected than information anxiety or social anxiety. Bozionelos'
men. In terms of age, people of different ages show great research shows that when people generate too much
differences in self-control. This may be due to anxiety about information systems such as social media,

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SHS Web of Conferences 188, 03006 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202418803006
ICDDE 2024

users may resort to evasive behavior, which leads to less features they were not familiar with. For example, older
frequency and efficiency of use. Physical and children need to learn the intricacies of social media
psychological stress are the most common before they can use it. However, users may find social
manifestations of anxiety among social media users. media difficult to use due to factors such as unstable and
Naveed found that users' uncertainty about information slow response of websites or mobile apps. This can lead
utilization led to their high expectations of information to psychological symptoms such as anxiety and anxiety
benefits; Second, high expectations lead to anxiety. Bad [8].
social media management and communication leads to
users being oppressed and isolated [8]. Because of the
4.3 Functional ease of use affects consumer
huge amount of information and uncertainty of social
sentiment
media, users must be useful or interesting from a large
number of information. The "information island" of According to the survey, from 2013 to 2014, the number
social media reduces the efficiency of users to receive of people using two or more social media apps increased
more homogenized information, resulting in information by 10 percent in one year. On the one hand, using
redundancy, which turns into self-compulsion and multiple social media platforms increases the amount of
anxiety [8]. Four speculations about the impact of tasks undertaken by users, leading to anxiety and
information overload on consumer sentiment. cognitive impairment; On the other hand, since each
social media platform has its own rules, it's easy to
4.1 Information redundancy affects consumer master using one social media platform alone; However,
sentiment as the number of social media platforms increases, users
can feel difficult to control, leading to negative emotions
Driven by commercial interests, social media is flooded [8].
with advertisements and junk information. These spam
messages make social media consumers feel tired and
4.4 Using multiple platforms increases user
anxious [8].
anxiety.

4.2 Information authenticity affects consumer Fig. 1 shows the research model of the influence of
sentiment external factors of social media on consumer sentiment
built in this paper based on the above analysis and
Because social media has many functions, it can confuse hypothesis [8].
consumers. At first, customers made the mistake of using

Fig.1. Influencing factor model of social media users' anxiety [8]

over 70% of the content on social media is duplicated,

and there is a severe information silos problem. These
5 Suggestions factors make it harder for users to locate relevant or
Although social media is a valuable source of important information while also increasing the
information, it is evident that information variables have likelihood that they will forget it [8]. This means that
an impact on users' emotions. This is primarily because social media companies must actively offer

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SHS Web of Conferences 188, 03006 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202418803006
ICDDE 2024

psychological therapy and intervention services to users with different views argue on social media, it can lead to
in order to encourage the increase in the user base of emotional polarization and negative emotions. These
relevant issues. problems deserve people's attention. Serious negative
In order to reduce the impact of information overload emotions can lead to anxiety and depression, if the
on users' emotions, operators in social media need to impact of negative emotions is not paid attention to,
provide higher quality information, such as improving anxiety and depression will become more and more
the information filtering mechanism and raising the serious. Prolonged exposure to negative emotions can
threshold for authoritative information to publish lead to physical ailments, such as depression and
accounts. Through the user's communication behavior, irritability. Therefore, consumers should pay attention to
location information and other data, operators can mine the impact of negative emotions, learn to control their
the needs and preferences of consumers, and provide emotions, maintain an optimistic attitude and a positive
services and recommendations for consumers. It attitude. In addition, if consumers feel that their
indirectly affects the relationship between social media emotions are out of control or having a negative impact
use and consumer sentiment [9]. The degree to which a on their lives, they should seek professional
person is affected by stress in a particular environment psychological counseling and treatment immediately.
depends mainly on the traditional perception of the Through this series of studies, it is found that social
individual, followed by the environment. A person media is a double-edged sword that affects consumer
shows carrying through perception and behavior. sentiment. Consumers need to take its positive and
Psychological stress should result in a response to negative effects seriously and take certain measures to
physical burden [10]. avoid the negative effects. When consumers make better
In order to better control their stress and anxiety, use of social media platforms, it will become an
consumers can focus on the following areas: First of all, important force to promote social progress and
people ought to use social media more responsibly, development. In the future, with the continuous
acknowledge that it is only one aspect of their lives, and development and application of technology, social media
stop viewing it as the entirety of it. Second, in order to platforms will be more personalized to provide
lessen tension and worry, individuals ought to focus consumers, major media and businesses with better
more on their mental health and acquire methods of experience, and the positive development will also bring
relaxation like deep breathing and mindfulness positive emotions to consumers.
meditation. Thirdly, users need to be mindful of how However, this article also has certain limitations in
they handle social media. By listening, voicing their own terms of comprehensiveness and depth of content
thoughts, and respecting those of others, people may analysis. In the future, with available resources, the
learn to prevent disputes and misunderstandings. To author will conduct in-depth research around this topic,
guarantee that users may more readily profit from social quantifying the correlation between social media and
media on the platform, social media companies should consumer emotions.
fortify their content management methods. These should
include early blocking of unlawful short films and
frequent screening of offensive comments and videos. References
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