Digital Emotion Regulation

People routinely regulate their emotions in order to function more effectively at work, to behave more appropriately in social situations, or simply to feel better. Recently, researchers have begun to examine how people shape their affective states using digital technologies, such as smartphones. In this article, we discuss the emergence of digital emotion regulation, both as a widespread behavioral phenomenon and a new cross-disciplinary field of research. This field bridges two largely distinct areas of enquiry: (a) psychological research into how and why people regulate their emotions, which has yet to systematically explore the role of digital technology, and (b) computing research into how digital technologies impact users’ emotions, which has yet to integrate psychological theories of emotion regulation. We argue that bringing these two areas into better contact will benefit both and will facilitate a deeper understanding of the nature and significance of digital emotion regulation.