Eco-anxiety among young climate activists in the Netherlands: the role of information exposure on social media

This study aims at understanding the emotions, perceptions and beliefs of climate activists aged 17-25, and how these relate to their social media use. We investigate the platforms they use to receive climate change-related information, the types of information they come across, as well as the emotions such information evokes in them. Data was collected from 20 in-depth interviews with members of Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future in the Netherlands. The interviews followed a semi-structured guide covering social media use, attitudes towards climate change, exposure to climate-related content, climate anxiety, and self-efficacy. Our findings reveal that all participants reported getting feelings concomitant with eco-anxiety–such as anger, hopelessness and disappointment–from their exposure to climate change-related content on social media. However, such feelings were also found to motivate pro-environmental actions and led the participants to curate and filter the content they see online–therefore highlighting their agency, and the acts that climate change-related content on social media can elicit. Altogether, these open up potential new avenues for research at the intersection of online information exposure and eco-anxiety, emphasising the role of individuals’ agency in the process.