Sadfishing in Social Media Waters

'Sadfishing' a relatively new term, coined by journalist Rebecca Reid in 2019, to describe a phenomenon in which a celebrity would market a product by posting something on their social media platforms that generates emotional responses from their followers. The term has since evolved outside of celebrity circles, to describe “the tendency of social media users to publish exaggerations of their emotional states to generate sympathy”. So we first look into what this behaviour entails, and how best to respond to it, with a licensed counsellor. Then, we ask our listeners about their openness to people sharing their emotions online.

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