Study of words and icons related to social networks: familiarity, valence and activation in Spanish university students

Social networks have become an important phenomenon in the daily lives of many people, which is why in recent years they have aroused the interest of many researchers. This fact contrasts with the lack of normative psycholinguistic and affective indexes that facilitate their study within psychology. The aim of the present work is to provide a freely accessible database with words and icons related to the most used social networks. The responses of a sample of university students on familiarity, emotional valence and arousal of 42 words related to social networks and their corresponding icons are analyzed. Most of the stimuli were familiar, had positive valence and generated high arousal in the participants. Gender differences related to familiarity were obtained in some words and icons. The findings obtained in the present work allow us to broaden the understanding of the lexicon used in the field of social networks. Also, the stimuli provided can be used in experimental studies on the use, abuse or dependence on social networks in Spain.