The growth of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the height of COVID-19, people around the world used social media to stay connected — even while physically separated. This made COVID-19 different from previous pandemics. As countries began to quarantine, there were seismic shifts in communities and across businesses, which were documented and influenced by social media.

Here we look at social media’s role throughout the COVID-19 quarantine, and which trends we think continue to permeate today.

Background

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Cases of COVID-19 first emerged in late December 2019, when a mysterious illness was reported in Wuhan, China. The cause of the disease was soon confirmed as a novel coronavirus, and the infection has since spread to many countries worldwide and has become a pandemic disease. Several websites have published information about COVID-19 and have given different instructions to their users about ways to prevent the spread of the virus, such as keeping a distance between themselves and others, using masks, and washing their hands. Social media has become a source of disseminating information to the public. Many individuals will experience isolation during hospitalization or when quarantining at home. Social media can be an efficient source of information and an effective means for staying abreast of the vast amount of medical knowledge.

Methods: 

The study incorporated the narrative review analysis based on the existing literature related to mental health problems using the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) approach to minimize the COVID-19 adverse consequences on global mental health. The study performed a search of the electronic databases available at PsycINFO, PubMed, and LISTA.

Results:

Participants reported that social media has a significant impact on spreading fear and panic related to the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a potential negative influence on people’s mental health and psychological well-being. Facebook was the most used social media network for spreading panic about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq. We found a significant positive statistical correlation between self-reported social media use and the spread of panic related to COVID-19 (R=.8701). Our results showed that the majority of youths aged 18-35 years are facing psychological anxiety.

 

The importance of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic

Can you imagine first learning about a pandemic because a Boy Scout knocked on your door to tell you about it? Well, during the 1918 flu pandemic, that’s how it worked.

The CDC estimates the 1918 flu pandemic infected a third of the world’s population and killed an estimated 50 million people globally. A public health report on Minneapolis’ response to the 1918 flu shows that critical information regarding the virus was primarily shared via postal workers, Boy Scouts, and teachers; very different from how information is shared today.

Now, not only do we have access to news sources at our fingertips, but the speed at which we consume information means we have immediate access to life-saving social and medical information.

More people logged on to social media during the pandemic than ever before. A study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that 70% of respondents reported their social media use increased during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, and 87% reported increases during the second wave in 2021.

What are the benefits of using social media during the coronavirus pandemic?

Throughout the years, humans have been exposed to a variety of deadly diseases… Remember Swine Flu? Swine flu and Ebola are only some of the examples that have killed millions of people around the world. In 2019, Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread like wildfire taking over the entire world. Currently, there are over a million cases of the disease detected across two hundred countries. Needless to say, this has caused major panic among people. What is interesting to note, however, is that this is the first time a pandemic has been covered and reported mainly through the internet and social media. We are now going to go through the advantages and disadvantages of using social media during the pandemic!