BULLYING AND SELF-MOCKERY IN THE POSTS OF LITHUANIA'S MOST POPULAR INFLUENCERS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of bullying and self-mockery depiction in posts published by the most popular Lithuanian social media influencers on Instagram and Facebook, according to the social and demographic characteristics of the influencers and the characteristics of their posts.Materials and methods. This study analyzed all (6425) publicly available posts by the 21 most popular Lithuanian influencers published on Instagram and Facebook in 2022. The chi-square (χ2) test was used to assess the distribution of posts according to the influencers gender, age, number of followers, number of reactions and comments of the posts, type of the post, and time of publication.Results. Bullying and self-mockery were depicted in 264 (4.1%) posts published on social networks. Bullying of other people was the most common form of bullying depicted, appearing in 150 (2.3%) posts. On Instagram, men and older influencers were relatively more likely to depict bullying and self-mockery in their posts, and these posts received relatively more comments and were more often published in video format (respectively, 5.9% vs. 1.8%, 4.4% vs. 0.9%, 4.1% vs. 1.5%, and 4.7% vs. 2.1%, p≤0.050). On Facebook, bullying and self-mockery were relatively more often portrayed by men, older influencers, and influencers with less followers, and these posts received relatively more reactions and comments and were more often published in text format (respectively, 6.1% vs. 3.5%, 5.4% vs. 3.6%, 6.8% vs. 3.4%, 6.9% vs. 2.6%, and 7.0% vs. 2.5%, and 21.8% vs. 4.5%, p≤0.050).Conclusions. Bullying and self-mockery are depicted in approximately every twentieth post created by Lithuanian influencers. Bullying of other people is the most common form of bullying depicted. Men and older influencers are relatively more likely to post content depicting bullying, and these posts receive more comments.