The COVID-19 pandemic influenced the ways in which social media is used both in terms of time spent as well as content viewed. According to an article in Penn Medicine by Nicole Fullerton, social media use increased by over 60% during the first wave of the pandemic. This is speculated to be due to increased free time, a desire to connect with others over the internet, and a desire to gain access to new information about the pandemic over social media.
Based on a study explained in Penn Medicine News, “in the first experimental study of Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram use, psychologist Melissa G. Hunt, Ph.D., associate director of clinical training in Penn’s Psychology department, found that social media use actually increases depression and loneliness.” Those who have pre-existing problems with anxiety, depression, and sleep quality find the issues to be amplified with internet use. These results are not surprising as social media use has repeatedly been shown to negatively impact mental health.
Much of the time spent on social media during the pandemic involved consuming information regarding COVID-19. A study by Kathryn Buchanan et al. explained that “data from a large cross-sectional survey […] found that 45% of respondents spent more than half an hour consuming pandemic-related informational content each day.” This leads to mental distress as individuals are constantly exposed to anxiety inducing information. According to an article by Nan Zhao and Guangyu Zhou in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “despite the importance of media in spreading urgent information during times of collective trauma events, numerous studies have suggested that disaster media exposure may evoke poor mental health outcomes.” Regardless of whether users are actively seeking out COVID-19 related information or simply stumbling upon it, they are at risk for disaster media exposure.
Despite the negative impacts of social media use during the pandemic, it also aided in facilitating connections between family, friends, and acquaintances who otherwise would have felt isolated. A survey by the Pew Research Center found that during the pandemic over 80% of individuals used video chat, 40% used digital devices in a new way, and 29% increased their use of technology so much that they upgraded their equipment. Although the majority of those surveyed stated that social media did not replace in-person interactions, 85% found it to be useful in connecting with others. These connections were especially valuable during a time when in-person interactions were either banned or frowned upon.
During the pandemic, a variety of trends and hashtags were created as a source of entertainment as well as motivation. Many of these involved fitness challenges since gyms were closed for safety concerns. For example, the #see10do10 challenge encouraged those tagged to take a video of themselves doing 10 pushups and then tag a bunch of friends to do the same. This trend encouraged movement and also reminded those who were tagged that someone was thinking about them.
Fitness was not the only topic impacted by hashtags during the height of COVID-19. A variety of tags were created to encourage social distancing and enforce the stay-at-home order. These included #StayHomeStaySafe, #LockdownNow, and #FlattenTheCurve. Under these hashtags, posts can be found with information about the pandemic, pictures of people staying home to avoid contact with others, and some random posts that are only there because the tags were trending.
Unfortunately, as the use of social media increased, so did false information on prominent platforms. This false news ranged from conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID-19 to random combinations of household ingredients that were said to kill the virus. This misinformation was often dangerous. The false idea that drinking methanol would kill the virus inside of an infected person killed 800 people in Iran and hospitalized 5,876 due to methanol poisoning according to the US National Library of Medicine. Many popular social media platforms have attempted to discourage falsified information by adding features that easily allow users to flag potentially incorrect information which can later be reviewed by third-party fact checkers. More specifically, Instagram has added a feature that hides posts with incorrect information behind a wall so the user is aware that the post is false before reading it. Overall, social media was widely used and proved to be influential throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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