Do Online Reaction Comments Affect Our Life Satisfaction? Competitive vs. Cooperative Context

Abstract

People from diverse backgrounds share their opinions by making comments online, and many people react to such comments by replying directly to them. How would such interaction affect peoples well-being? A reaction comment is a reply to an original comment. This research examines whether, why, and when the online reaction comments of others affect peoples well-being. People tend to care about how others view them

such a tendency is prevalent in todays highly interconnected online world. The study shows that perceived loneliness mediates the effect of reaction comments. Others reaction comments are more likely to affect the life satisfaction of people in the cooperative (vs. competitive) context. People in the competitive context were unaffected by reaction comments, but people in the cooperative context were more satisfied when reaction comments were similar (vs. dissimilar) to their own opinions.