COVID-19 Pandemisinde Bilgi Kaynağı Olarak Sosyal Medyanın Rolü

Abstract

Objective: To reveal the role of social media as an information source during coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Material and Methods: The present study is planned as a cross-sectional, multi-center survey study starting from the first week of COVID-19 pandemic. A custom-made survey was prepared, eliciting participants' demographic data, preferred source of the information about COVID-19 disease, and their preference for usual social media platforms and the type of posts. The survey also aimed to determine how the use of social media changed the daily behavior of participants. Results: In total, 107 women, 105 men with a mean age of 33.3±10.3 were included in the study. Social media, television, and web sites were the most preferred sources of information about COVID-19 (76.4%, 54.7%, and 53.3% respectively). Before the pandemic era, participants used social media as an information tool for COVID-19 an average of 2.6 times a week, increasing to 7.8 times during the pandemic (p<0.001). The average screen time in social media searches for COVID-19 increased from 22 minutes to 117 minutes after the onset of the pandemic (p<0.001). The most frequently accessed social media posts were videos from doctors specialized in the pandemic, and the experience of COVID-19 survivors (61.8% and 38.2%, respectively). Conclusion: The present study has demonstrated that social media was the most preferable source to get information about COVID-19 pandemic. While the video shares were the most watched contents, the participants expressed that they wanted to watch the videos coming from the doctors the most.