Social Media Use in Quarantine

#social media use

By Joseph Alexander Witrago Quarantine Check

In Mid-March, the state of California put in place a stay at home order due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This required schools, businesses, and public places including parks to shut down in order to halt the spread of the virus. This confined people to their homes leaving them with lots of time to kill. It seems that a lot of that time was spent on our digital devices, and more specifically social media platforms. A new study reveals that the usage of social media went up by 61% since the start of COVID-19. The same study revealed an increase across all messaging platforms specifically among 1834 year olds. Eighteen-year-old David Serrano, a senior and football player for Duarte High School before the start of the stay at home order, only had one social media platform he was on, Facebook. Serrano was hardly ever active on Andrew Witrago any digital media platform, but that all changed after being told to stay home and practice social distancing. Serrano since he has been on lockdown has downloaded Instagram and Twitter to keep connected with his family and friends. “Before the pandemic, they were too much to keep up with and I would get bored,” said Serrano. “I saw my friends at school and during football practice or when I went to hang out with them.” Serrano is not alone in this, the usage and downloads of social media have risen since the start of the pandemic. There are millions of videos that can be found on social media and most of them are not necessarily related to the COVID-19. Although what people have decided to do because they are confined to their homes, you can find hundreds of trends that can be found across all platforms of digital media. For example, quarantine challenges, new hobbies, quarantine life and much more. Before the stay at home order, when school was still filled with students, and sports were being played, Andrew Witrago said soccer was his therapy and escape. Today, the varsity starting 11 goalkeeper for Monrovia High School is stuck at home and has turned to posting videos of his soccer stunts on Tik-Tok as a way to cope with his lack of game time. “I was so bored. My options were staying in the house or juggling the ball in my backyard,” said Witrago. “I heard of this app called Tik-Tok earlier this year, and I usually go on to watch videos, but now I have decided to make and post my own videos.”

Social media has given a platform for many people to openly express their concerns, their experiences, and opinions about COVID-19. Take Cardi B, for example, the famous American rapper famously known for her “no filter attitude” who posted a few videos regarding her opinion of COVID-19. Her comedic voice once again starts a viral trend causing people to create videos with her voice over. Social media plays a role in keeping people connected with each other while also becoming a person’s choice of escape especially during a global pandemic. During the COVID-19 lock down social media has also helped people with depression. A broad body of research by KFF.org shows a link between social isolation and loneliness to poor mental health. Recent data shows that significantly higher shares of people that are sheltering in place reported negative mental health effects resulting from stress related to COVID-19. To most of the youth today, social interaction through education, friendships, and sports mean the world to them. Serrano, like most teenagers, is no different. Before the pandemic, football was his life, a sense of purpose, and something he looked forward to. Witrago can say the same thing about soccer. Since early on in the lockdown, Witrago has dealt with depression due to little communication with his soccer friends and lack of playing his favorite sport. When Witrago started posting stories on his Instagram and Tik-Tok, friends and strangers began pouring into his comment section from his now most liked photo on Instagram, which is him holding a soccer ball with a face mask. “I still wake up sad everyday knowing that people are dying, and we are still locked inside,” said Witrago, “but at least my new ideas of photos and Tik-Tok videos, give me something to keep my mind off those things. It’s the closest I can get to the feeling of playing soccer.” This digital media platform has done a great service by making us laugh and keeping us connected to the world during COVID-19. However, it may have a negative effect as well. Fortunately for Serrano and Witrago who have both benefited from social media as a coping mechanism from being restrained from their reason to get up in the morning; others are not so lucky. According to Plos.org, “A study conducted in China found that social media may lead to (mis)information overload, which may cause mental health problems. The study shows that the overload of information caused by fear, anxiety, and stigma created misinformation that was rumored, particularly in social media. Previous studies indicated that indirect exposure to mass trauma through the media can cause depression.” Misinformation in the media is also rising during COVID-19, and social media is usually the platform that provides the opportunity for fake news to spread. The United States is not new to the spread of fake news, although social media apps have done what they could to stop the spread of misinformation to the public some posts are protected by free speech. “Social media is where young people get their news,” Serrano said, shrugging his shoulders. Although there are negative effects to the increase of screen time, we have also seen positive outcomes from people around the world. During this lockdown, people are able to connect with friends, loved ones, or people going through the same thing. In other words, social media is able to show everyone that we are all in this pandemic together through the content we make and how we respond to it. Or as famous Tik-Tok dancer Charli D’Amelio said best in one of her viral videos, “inhale, exhale, breathe slow, rewind, stay at home.”

David Serrano