“I really like to hide that”: Exploring the avoidance of negative affects in online youth visual culture

This paper examines how social rules around emotion shape young people's photographic choices in digital spaces. Drawing on affect theory, it analyzes how youth learn to manage emotional expression to align with communal expectations of what is appropriate to feel and display online. In particular, the paper explores why youth avoid portraying certain emotions through images and how this avoidance reflects learned “feeling rules,” including social expectations to strive for happiness (Ahmed, 2010; Berlant, 2010; Hochschild, 2003). The findings are based on qualitative interviews with thirty-four youth residing in Canada who discussed the entanglement of emotions with the photographs they share online. • Social rules shape how youth express emotions in digital spaces. • Youth avoid posting negatives to escape judgment or stigma. • Youth feel pressure to appear happy online. • Youth aim to shield others from negativity online.