How The Pandemic Changed Social Media Usage
By Jack Hammell
The COVID-19 Pandemic changed the way that we use social media forever. People who, though used social media frequently, were now using it at a rate never seen before. People who were working in offices that sent their employees home had to result to social media to keep in touch. Companies had to use social media to get their deals and marketing out to the world because less people were on the road.
The Pandemic created a world that what sheltered in place and the best way to communicate was with technology. Face-to-face conversation was almost suspended for a few months during lockdown. But don’t just take it from me, lets look at some of the numbers.
According to an article by Vox, author Rani Molla says, “Americans spent on average 82 minutes per day on social media in 2020, a seven-minute jump from 2019 and a large upward revision from eMarketer’s original forecast. The media measurement firm previously estimated that time spent on social media would remain the same. But in 2020, concerns about screen time — and “time well spent” — went out the window.”
Another interesting point Molla makes is about how there seemed to be less posts but more time spent. He says, “Some people told us that while they’re scrolling on social media more, they’re posting less — indeed, what’s there to post about when you’re stuck at home doing the same stuff over and over? Commonly shared milestones like birthdays and weddings were postponed or downsized, and people fear coming off as celebratory when there’s so much suffering, or at least so much judgment.”
Some people in contrast posted more, documenting their time during quarantine to keep themselves from boredom and give themselves something to do.
Organizations such as the World Health Organization have even done studies on the pandemics effect and have said that it has actually been a key in the start of the spread of misinformation. During the pandemic people got their news from all kinds of news sources including places like Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, etc. With so many different sources, there was a large amount of unverified news which led to tons of misinformation about the virus. For younger audiences however, the WHO actually found that they could find misinformation easier than older demographics. They said, “More than half (59.1%) of Gen Z and Millennials surveyed are “very aware” of “fake news” surrounding COVID-19 and can often spot it. However, the challenge is in recruiting them to actively counter it, rather than letting it slide, with many (35.1%) just ignoring.”
Research from WHO
Even according to Statista, “Generally received as democratic and organic virtual outlets, social media were among the leading sources of reliable information for updates on the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Overall, keeping track of news and information has been important to social media users throughout the pandemic. While updates on the virus itself seemed to be in high demand at the start of 2020, as of January 2021, information about vaccines was the most sought piece of information.”
Social media really benefitted from the pandemic. With this being said it is still debatable on if it was a good thing. Though most of us love social media, for many, it was all we did during the pandemic. Bored at home, we scrolled and scrolled on TikTok for hours. Was this good for our health? Penn Medicine said that the isolation caused by the pandemic attributed to people being lonely and though social media helped keep people connected, it was not the same reality as physically being with our friends and family. They said, “Originally, it was thought that people with social anxiety might benefit from social media use since it could serve as a stepping stone for social interaction,” Tyler said. “In many cases, however, the pressure of gaining more ‘likes’ or more ‘friends,’ has had the opposite effect. Instead of making people who feel socially anxious more connected, it forces them to realize how disconnected they are.”
Lastly, places like Pew Research weighed in on how not necessarily social media, but how parents viewed their children using electronic devices more during the pandemic. They said, “In April 2021, about eight-in-ten parents of a child who was age 11 or younger at the time of the first interview (81%) said their kid ever used or interacted with a tablet computer – even if just to watch videos or listen to music – up from 68% in March 2020. About seven-in-ten (71%) said the same thing about their kid’s use of a smartphone, up from 63% the year before. And 51% of parents with a young child said their child used a game console or portable game device in 2021, up slightly from 2020.”
Research from Pew
Overall, through these sources, it proves that social media and electronic usage boomed during the pandemic and has mostly kept up. Apps like TikTok boomed during the pandemic and are now household names in our lives today.
Sources Used:
https://www.vox.com/recode/22295131/social-media-use-pandemic-covid-19-instagram-tiktok