Role of social-media in Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Reactivity - Comparative analysis between Millennials and Generation Z

This comparative study’s purpose investigates social media’s impact on emotion regulation and interpersonal reactivity (personal distress, empathic concern, perspective taking and fantasy) among Millennials (1981-1996) and Generation Z (1997-2012) in India with 195 participants, 98 being Generation Z, 97 being Millennials. This study uses a quantitative approach, and the data collection was through google forms. The results show social media has an impact on emotion regulation, even though other interpersonal reactivity traits remain unaffected. Furthermore, Millennials have stronger emotion regulation difficulties, and Gen Z may engage more in imaginative thinking (fantasy). The results also indicate that emotion regulation is associated with personal distress, empathic concern, perspective-taking, social media engagement and fantasy— in different directions (some positive, some negative).