Face-to-face social interactions were restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic due to social distancing measures. Although the deprivation of social interaction is assumed to have adversely impacted emotional well-being, the interplay between daily emotions and social interactions during the social distancing periods has not been thoroughly studied. Two studies are reported in this thesis. Using social media data from the beginning of COVID-19 in December 2019 through to May 2022, Study 1 mapped the emotion trajectories of Hong Kong Twitter users over 30 months and the relationship of these trajectories with the imposition of social distancing measures. The results showed an overall positive emotion trajectory despite the social distancing measures. To explore the reasons behind the ove...[ Read more ]

Face-to-face social interactions were restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic due to social distancing measures. Although the deprivation of social interaction is assumed to have adversely impacted emotional well-being, the interplay between daily emotions and social interactions during the social distancing periods has not been thoroughly studied. Two studies are reported in this thesis. Using social media data from the beginning of COVID-19 in December 2019 through to May 2022, Study 1 mapped the emotion trajectories of Hong Kong Twitter users over 30 months and the relationship of these trajectories with the imposition of social distancing measures. The results showed an overall positive emotion trajectory despite the social distancing measures. To explore the reasons behind the overall pleasant emotions during social distancing, Study 2 used a diary method to examine the relationship between different types of social interactions and daily emotions and how this relationship varied with personality. The results showed that the pleasantness of both face-to-face and non-face-to-face interactions were related to higher valence and arousal in everyday life. Of the Big Five personality traits, people high in Neuroticism were less likely to experience pleasure through non-face-to-face interactions than people who were less neurotic, and people high in Openness to Experience were more likely to experience activation through browsing social media. These findings suggest the potential moderation effect of personality on the relationship between social interactions and daily emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.