The Pursuit of Approval: Social Media Users’ Decreased Posting Latency Following Online Exclusion as a Form of Acknowledgment-Seeking Behavior

How do individuals behave after the sting of social exclusion on social media? Previous theorizing predicts that, after experiencing exclusion, individuals either engage in activities that reconnect them with others, or, they withdraw from the context. We analyzed data from Twitter ( k = 47,399 posts; N = 2,000 users) and Reddit ( k = 58,442 posts; N = 2,000 users), using relative (un)popularity of users’ own posts (i.e., receiving fewer Likes/upvotes than usual) as an indicator of social exclusion. Both studies found no general increase or decrease in posting latency following exclusion. However, the latency of behaviors aimed at connecting with many others decreased (i.e., posting again quickly), and the latency of behaviors aimed at connecting with specific others increased (i.e., commenting or mentioning others less quickly). Our findings speak in favor of acknowledgment-seeking behavior as a reaction to social exclusion that may be specific to social media contexts.