Impact of COVID19 on Social Media Usage
During this unprecedented time of the coronavirus pandemic, many people are confined in their homes. For this reason, the world is recording an increase in social media usage. The increase in social media usage is due to the ravaging coronavirus that has made every country in the globe take physical and social distancing to prevent the spread of this virus. Many states have encouraged their citizens to remain at home as one of the coronavirus containment measures. The coronavirus’s new standard during this unprecedented time of the pandemic has necessitated increased social media usage.
Impact of COVID19 on Social Media Platform Usage
During their stay at home, people are making communication mainly via social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Twitter, among others. On the other hand, companies have adopted remote working and therefore utilize social media platforms to enhance and pursue company goals (Wiederhold, 2020). For instance, company meetings are being held on conferencing applications such as zoom. Many activities have been shifted online as people are in fear of contracting this dangerous coronavirus disease. Furthermore, politicians are using mainly social media to pursue their political ambitions because rallies are not allowed amidst this ravenous pandemic.
Additionally, people are not allowed to gather together; this has resulted in the shifting of the entertainment industry online. For instance, most of the live entertainment performances are being done online via Instagram, Facebook, zoom, among many other applications that allow live recording. Also, the annoying situations while at home makes most people make themselves busy through the use of social media. Many people are using YouTube to watch their favorite entertainments. Furthermore, due to physical, social distancing, and stay-at-home rules, church services are being conducted online compared to before the onset of the diseases (Brown, 2020). For instance, sermons and preaching are made by church leaders through social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter, among others. Lastly, information and updates about the coronavirus pandemic are spread to citizens through social media platforms. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) uses Facebook to sensitize billions of people around the world about the coronavirus. The coronavirus’s new standard has made social media usage to increase since most of the activities are carried online.
Impact of COVID19 on the Type of Content Consumed
As earlier asserted, many countries across the globe have adopted lockdown and restriction of movement as one of coronavirus containment measures. People are consuming high levels of media to keep them entertained while they are indoors. Research conducted by Global Web Index indicates the highest consumption of social media from the United States and the United Kingdom. The primary content consumed is mainly TikTok, online videos from YouTube, online broadcast televisions. The consumption cuts across all gender and age.
Further, research indicates that about 65% of social media users amidst this pandemic are searching for coronavirus pandemic updates. The majority of the users are interested in streaming music and videos. Young people are using social media to play online games as entertainment during this time of the pandemic (Slanetz et al., 2020). Also, social media platforms are being used to further education goals in many countries globally, as learning has shifted online due to coronavirus outbreak (Almarzooq et al., 2020). Many globally have trusted the World Health Organization as the most trusted body that disseminates information about the coronavirus pandemic (Chan et al., 2020).
On the contrary, citizens from the United States and the United Kingdom trust their states as the most reliable source of updates for the coronavirus updates. Additionally, the televisions and movies displayed on Netflix are mainly about the pandemic. The media people are consuming are either positive or negative impacts on their wellbeing.
References
Almarzooq, Z., Lopes, M., & Kochar, A. (2020). Virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: a disruptive technology in graduate medical education. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zaid_Almarzooq/publication/340671780_Virtual_Learning_During_the_COVID-19_Pandemic_A_Disruptive_Technology_in_Graduate_Medical_Education/links/5e9d0643a6fdcca789284505/Virtual-Learning-During-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-A-Disruptive-Technology-in-Graduate-Medical-Education.pdf
Brown, M. A. (2020). Coronavirus and Church Closures: Will the COVID-19 Gathering Bans Survive Free Exercise Challenges?. Available at SSRN 3580135. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=3580135
Chan, A. K. M., Nickson, C. P., Rudolph, J. W., Lee, A., & Joynt, G. M. (2020). Social media for rapid knowledge dissemination: early experience from the COVID‐19 pandemic. Anesthesia. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7228334/
Slanetz, P. J., Parikh, U., Chapman, T., & Motuzas, C. L. (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Radiology Education—Strategies for Survival. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(6), 743. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7180008/
Wiederhold, B. K. (2020). Social media use during social distancing. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/cyber.2020.29181.bkw