Understanding the buffering effect of social media use on anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown
During the COVID-19 outbreak, lockdown measures have been deployed worldwide. In the wake of these measures, internet and social media use has reached unprecedented peaks. We hypothesize that social media can, in the context of the pandemic, be a placeholder for collective resilient processes modulated by cognitive and emotional components. An online survey (N = 1408) using a cross-sectional design was carried out over nine weeks from the beginning of March 2020 to the end of May 2020. The triangulation via SEM statistical modeling, text mining, and sentiment, discriminant, and entropy analyses revealed the granular functional role of social media use in promoting a positive perception towards stressors during the pandemic. This study provides an empirically tested theoretical framework to understand the evolution of buffering mechanisms of social media use as a result of collective resilience. Recommendations on social media use for future lockdown scenarios were provided.
Other Information
Published in: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00724-x
History
Language
- English
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCPublication Year
- 2021
Institution affiliated with
- Qatar University