Temporality of online reactions in virtual communities: The example of reactions to fictional characters’ death

The digital era is witnessing a shift of the expression of human behavior from physical to online spaces. From the possibility to hold both synchronous and asynchronous interactions, to the capacity to store these interactions over time, temporality is a key aspect of online communities' emergence and structuring. Therefore, understanding the temporal patterns of online interactions is critical to apprehend how social interactions take place in digitalized spaces. We approached this question by exploring the temporal patterns of reactions to fictional characters' deaths in an online community of fans. More than 3,500 reactions to characters' death were collected on the most popular forum about Game of Thrones over 5 years. Temporal patterns of reactions varied between expected and unexpected events, with reactions to expected characters' death displaying more long-term patterns, while reactions to unexpected characters' death displayed more spontaneous patterns. Exposition to the character (i.e., screen time and multimedia presence) increased both the volume of reactions and the magnitude of the long-term reminiscence phenomenon. These results further our understanding of the temporality of virtual communities members’ reactions in cyberspace and the metaverse and provide new insights into the nature of parasocial dynamics in a multimedia and transmedia storytelling context.