Facebook and the Covid-19 Crisis: Building Solidarity Through Community Feeling

In the event of the Covid-19 spread, the entire world has been brought to a stop due to the imposed lockdown, to counter the effects of the spreading virus. This paper proposes to study the change in how people are experiencing a pandemic very differently and what such changes imply with respect to social connections and human interactions. The networked digital citizens come together in the time of crisis, sharing a sense of nostalgia as well as perseverance on Facebook. The paper will refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in order to explain the human need for the sense of belonging. A pandemic has not been experienced in earlier time as a global phenomenon with far reaching consequences as in the present context. People across the world are experiencing a similar form of loneliness, boredom, and anxiety irrespective of which profession one belongs to. The absence of physical movement has suddenly caused a great shift of interaction on to the Facebook platform. The corner stone for virtual social interaction had already been laid down with the rise of a ‘convergence culture’. Social communities depicting shared interests like music, dance, photography, food, and other aspects of life have been redesigned and restructured as a result of the lockdown. More and more people are sharing videos of activities they are engaging in during this time of immobility. A greater focus of family experiences are being shared by celebrities, creating a semblance of solidarity in fighting against the psychological effects of a long term lockdown. The provision of the care button on Facebook also intensifies this sense of a shared trauma and the human desire to overcome all hurdles together. The paper will focus on a number of Facebook trends, beginning from Dalgona coffee and its perception to music covers of popular songs such as ‘Dance Monkey’ and Bella Ciao. The historical meaning associated with the term ‘crisis’ is being redefined in a social context which greatly based on a networked population. This has an entirely different social and psychological implication. Analysing the Facebook updates will go a long way in understanding the term ‘crisis’ with respect to the time of Corona.