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Social Media has always been a big thing all around the world since it came to be in the early 2000s. Social Media includes Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and the new popular app TikTok. All of these apps have been around for a long time, while TikTok is something that gained popularity in 2019 after it rebranded from the old Musically. Musically came around in 2014 and was remade into TikTok. During the pandemic especially, TikTok was on the rise as more and more people were stuck indoors. Since many people were stuck inside and could not go out and see people anymore, people turned to social media to stay updated on what people were doing during this time. While there are a lot of positives on social media during the pandemic, there were also some negatives.

Everyone had to start creating their own bubble of people they would talk to.

Positive effects of Social Media during the Pandemic:

There were some positive effects of social media usage during the pandemic and those included: spreading information & awareness about the pandemic, marketing strategies, and a way of spreading positivity during such a sad time.

Spreading Information & Awareness

Since everyone was on their phones, it was easy to spread information fast through social media. It made spreading information about what Covid-19 was and how to prevent yourself from getting it. It also made it easy to get information on where you could get vaccines. Governments and brands used social media to provide people with a better understanding of events and their impacts.

Marketing Strategies

With the fast sudden spread of Covid-19, a lot of products ran out very fast and many people could not get their hands on the basic necessities due to the pandemic. A lot of brands turned to make hand sanitizers, ventilators, and masks for the hospitals and public. Alcohol companies like Anheuser-Busch shifted from brewing beer to making hand sanitizer, Tesla began producing ventilators, and Brooks Brothers went from stitching suits to face masks.

Spreading Positivity

During such a sad time everyone was looking for some sort of positive thing on social media. This caused more and more people to post positive quotes or ways to boost your serotonin during such a depressing time. People would post on their Instagram stories about how “it’s okay to not be okay” and if anyone needed anything they are more than happy to listen.

Social Media was some peoples only way of communication to other people.

Negative effects of Social Media during the Pandemic:

While there were more positive effects of social media during the pandemic there were still some negative effects. Social media was a great place to spread information but, with good information, there was also a lot of misinformation. Along with misinformation, another negative effect was how social media affected people’s mental health.

Misinformation

A lot of misinformation could be spread around because it is so easy to share things around social media. This was bad because a lot of people would believe the misinformation and end up spreading it through their own social media to all of their followers. This misinformation would also cause unnecessary anxiety and stress. The spread of misinformation became so popular during the pandemic that many sites started flagging and possibly removing content that was not based on facts. But even with the removal of some posts about misinformation people are still bombarded with multiple posts.

Mental Health

People’s mental health was also negatively affected by social media during the pandemic. With the spread of a ton of misinformation, it was causing people with and without a previous mental health issue to experience: depression, anxiety, stress, and fear. Because people were constantly on social media and constantly sharing more information it was just causing people’s mental health to plummet.

Social Media, like many things, is good in moderation.

Conclusion

Overall social media played a large role during the pandemic with the positive sides and the negative sides. It caused people to stay connected even when they could not leave the house, it allowed brands to help out by creating new products, and it also spread information about how to stay safe inside. It sadly also allowed people to easily spread misinformation which in turn caused people to experience anxiety, depression, and an excess amount of stress. In the end, social media is good in moderation during a global pandemic.