Linguistic Distancing on Social Media: Indicators of Emotion Regulation Across Age Groups

This study investigates how emotion regulation, specifically the use of psychological distancing, evolves across the human lifespan. Psychological distancing involves viewing events from an objective, third-person perspective, which helps individuals manage emotional responses. The authors operationalize this through 'linguistic distancing,' a set of markers in text that indicate how much a person is distancing themselves from an event. Using a large-scale dataset of social media posts (Reddit and X) annotated with user age, the researchers analyzed how linguistic distancing changes from the teenage years through the 70s.

The researchers constructed a composite metric for linguistic distancing based on four distinct dimensions:

• Social Distancing: Measured by the ratio of first-person singular pronouns (e.g., 'I', 'me') to other pronouns; fewer first-person pronouns indicate higher distancing.
• Temporal Distancing: Measured by verb tense; using more past and future tense verbs relative to present tense indicates higher distancing.
• Abstractness: Measured by the concreteness of words; more abstract language is linked to higher psychological distancing.
• Passive Voice: The use of passive sentence structures, which removes agency from the subject and creates distance from the action.

The analysis reveals a consistent, statistically significant increase in linguistic distancing as age increases. This trend aligns with existing psychological literature suggesting that older adults often possess enhanced emotion regulation skills and improved overall well-being. Among the four dimensions, social distancing showed the steepest rate of increase with age. While the overall trend is upward, the researchers noted some platform-specific nuances, such as a dip in distancing during midlife on Reddit, which may reflect the specific types of advice-seeking or social interactions common to that platform.