Cargando…
Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance
In the wake of COVID-19 social distancing recommendations, social media assumed a central - if unofficial - role in ensuring that individuals remained informed and connected throughout the pandemic. Yet while research shows that social media can be an effective platform for connecting individuals so...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8435615/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34541378 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100137 |
_version_ | 1783751831219863552 |
---|---|
author | Mikal, Jude P. Wurtz, Rebecca Grande, Stuart W. |
author_facet | Mikal, Jude P. Wurtz, Rebecca Grande, Stuart W. |
author_sort | Mikal, Jude P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | In the wake of COVID-19 social distancing recommendations, social media assumed a central - if unofficial - role in ensuring that individuals remained informed and connected throughout the pandemic. Yet while research shows that social media can be an effective platform for connecting individuals socially and fostering social support exchanges, both the platforms and the support exchanged therein have been mired in considerable controversies regarding their use as a tool for positive social engagement. The goal of this study is to qualitatively evaluate longitudinal changes to social media engagement during social distancing recommendations and orders to shelter-in-place. To do this, we collected longitudinal, qualitative survey data from a group of adults over the eight weeks during which most states had issued orders to shelter-in-place. We analyze data for evidence of social connection, stress reduction, and support exchange, and evaluate the impact of online social ties on staying informed and on compliance with CDC recommendations and shelter-in-place orders. Results showed a clear longitudinal evolution of users’ online social engagement. Early use was characterized by agentic purposeful engagement, information sharing, and community resource mobilization. However, over time these patterns gave way to more passive use characterized by listlessness, contentiousness and misinformation as the pandemic wore on in weeks. As social media comes to occupy an increasingly important role in the exchange of information (and misinformation) this study has important implications for the health of users and the role of social media in future disasters, including how social media impacts both stress and health related behaviors. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8435615 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84356152021-09-13 Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance Mikal, Jude P. Wurtz, Rebecca Grande, Stuart W. Comput Hum Behav Rep Article In the wake of COVID-19 social distancing recommendations, social media assumed a central - if unofficial - role in ensuring that individuals remained informed and connected throughout the pandemic. Yet while research shows that social media can be an effective platform for connecting individuals socially and fostering social support exchanges, both the platforms and the support exchanged therein have been mired in considerable controversies regarding their use as a tool for positive social engagement. The goal of this study is to qualitatively evaluate longitudinal changes to social media engagement during social distancing recommendations and orders to shelter-in-place. To do this, we collected longitudinal, qualitative survey data from a group of adults over the eight weeks during which most states had issued orders to shelter-in-place. We analyze data for evidence of social connection, stress reduction, and support exchange, and evaluate the impact of online social ties on staying informed and on compliance with CDC recommendations and shelter-in-place orders. Results showed a clear longitudinal evolution of users’ online social engagement. Early use was characterized by agentic purposeful engagement, information sharing, and community resource mobilization. However, over time these patterns gave way to more passive use characterized by listlessness, contentiousness and misinformation as the pandemic wore on in weeks. As social media comes to occupy an increasingly important role in the exchange of information (and misinformation) this study has important implications for the health of users and the role of social media in future disasters, including how social media impacts both stress and health related behaviors. The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2021 2021-08-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8435615/ /pubmed/34541378 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100137 Text en © 2021 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Article Mikal, Jude P. Wurtz, Rebecca Grande, Stuart W. Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
title | Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
title_full | Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
title_fullStr | Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
title_full_unstemmed | Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
title_short | Social media as a modern Emergency Broadcast System: A longitudinal qualitative study of social media during COVID-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
title_sort | social media as a modern emergency broadcast system: a longitudinal qualitative study of social media during covid-19 and its impacts on social connection and social distancing compliance |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8435615/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34541378 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100137 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT mikaljudep socialmediaasamodernemergencybroadcastsystemalongitudinalqualitativestudyofsocialmediaduringcovid19anditsimpactsonsocialconnectionandsocialdistancingcompliance AT wurtzrebecca socialmediaasamodernemergencybroadcastsystemalongitudinalqualitativestudyofsocialmediaduringcovid19anditsimpactsonsocialconnectionandsocialdistancingcompliance AT grandestuartw socialmediaasamodernemergencybroadcastsystemalongitudinalqualitativestudyofsocialmediaduringcovid19anditsimpactsonsocialconnectionandsocialdistancingcompliance |