Abstract Social media has become ubiquitous and multifaceted. In this complex digital landscape, individuals are confronted with platform options, response expectations, anticipated audiences, and norms for posting on social media. In this study, college student participants (N = 300) were asked about their fear of negative evaluation (FNE), comfort levels when posting on Facebook and Instagram, expected valence of response, anticipated audience, and likelihood to unfriend or block people. Results revealed that comfort levels when posting were associated more with posting norms than emotional disposition (i.e., FNE). Furthermore, individuals anticipated a positive yet superficial response to their posts. They generally imagined the audience of their posts to be close others and casual friends, with a key difference of imagining family as audience on Facebook, rather than Instagram. By imagining close and friendly others as audiences as well as anticipating superficial, positive responses to posts, individuals inhabit two platform spaces that feel safer, even for those who fear negative evaluation.

中文翻译：

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寻求更安全的空间：年轻人的 Facebook 和 Instagram 受众期望和发布类型对负面评价恐惧的缓解影响

摘要 社交媒体已经变得无处不在，而且是多方面的。在这个复杂的数字环境中，个人面临着平台选项、响应期望、预期受众以及在社交媒体上发布的规范。在这项研究中，大学生参与者 (N = 300) 被问及他们对负面评价 (FNE) 的恐惧、在 Facebook 和 Instagram 上发帖时的舒适度、预期的回应效价、预期的受众以及与他人取消好友或屏蔽他人的可能性。结果显示，发帖时的舒适度与发帖规范的相关性比情绪倾向（即 FNE）更多。此外，个人预计他们的帖子会得到积极但肤浅的回应。他们通常将自己帖子的受众想象成是亲密的人和普通的朋友，将家庭想象为 Facebook 上的受众，而不是 Instagram 上的受众。通过将亲密友好的其他人想象为受众，并期待对帖子的肤浅、积极的回应，个人居住在两个感觉更安全的平台空间中，即使对于那些害怕负面评价的人也是如此。