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COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany

The lockdown restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased stress levels and feelings of anxiety in the general population. Problematic usage of certain online applications is one frequent way to compensate for negative feelings and stress. The current study investigated changes of...

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Autores principales: Lemenager, Tagrid, Neissner, Miriam, Koopmann, Anne, Reinhard, Iris, Georgiadou, Ekaterini, Müller, Astrid, Kiefer, Falk, Hillemacher, Thomas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792961/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33375139
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010014
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author Lemenager, Tagrid
Neissner, Miriam
Koopmann, Anne
Reinhard, Iris
Georgiadou, Ekaterini
Müller, Astrid
Kiefer, Falk
Hillemacher, Thomas
author_facet Lemenager, Tagrid
Neissner, Miriam
Koopmann, Anne
Reinhard, Iris
Georgiadou, Ekaterini
Müller, Astrid
Kiefer, Falk
Hillemacher, Thomas
author_sort Lemenager, Tagrid
collection PubMed
description The lockdown restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased stress levels and feelings of anxiety in the general population. Problematic usage of certain online applications is one frequent way to compensate for negative feelings and stress. The current study investigated changes of online media consumption during the lockdown in Germany. Gender and age specific differences in specific online activities were assessed. n = 3245 subjects participated in an online survey conducted between the 8th April and the 11th May 2020. Participants’ age ranged between 18 and >55 years. A considerably high percentage (71.4%) of participants reported increased online media consumption during the lockdown. Male participants were more likely to increase their consumption of gaming and erotic platforms, while female participants reported a higher increase in the engagement in social networks, information research, and video streaming than males. The findings revealed an increased usage of all online applications during the lockdown. For the clarification whether the increase might present a risk for elevated Internet-use disorders or can be regarded as a functional and time-limited phenomenon, further studies, assessing changes in these online activities after the end of the pandemic, are needed.
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spelling pubmed-77929612021-01-09 COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany Lemenager, Tagrid Neissner, Miriam Koopmann, Anne Reinhard, Iris Georgiadou, Ekaterini Müller, Astrid Kiefer, Falk Hillemacher, Thomas Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The lockdown restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased stress levels and feelings of anxiety in the general population. Problematic usage of certain online applications is one frequent way to compensate for negative feelings and stress. The current study investigated changes of online media consumption during the lockdown in Germany. Gender and age specific differences in specific online activities were assessed. n = 3245 subjects participated in an online survey conducted between the 8th April and the 11th May 2020. Participants’ age ranged between 18 and >55 years. A considerably high percentage (71.4%) of participants reported increased online media consumption during the lockdown. Male participants were more likely to increase their consumption of gaming and erotic platforms, while female participants reported a higher increase in the engagement in social networks, information research, and video streaming than males. The findings revealed an increased usage of all online applications during the lockdown. For the clarification whether the increase might present a risk for elevated Internet-use disorders or can be regarded as a functional and time-limited phenomenon, further studies, assessing changes in these online activities after the end of the pandemic, are needed. MDPI 2020-12-22 2021-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7792961/ /pubmed/33375139 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010014 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lemenager, Tagrid
Neissner, Miriam
Koopmann, Anne
Reinhard, Iris
Georgiadou, Ekaterini
Müller, Astrid
Kiefer, Falk
Hillemacher, Thomas
COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany
title COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany
title_full COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany
title_fullStr COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany
title_short COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions and Online Media Consumption in Germany
title_sort covid-19 lockdown restrictions and online media consumption in germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792961/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33375139
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010014
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