Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of social media on awareness' socio-environmental and sustainable consumption: Consolidating lessons from the pandemic

Abstract

Many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were caused on people's health and the economy of countries in its first year, especially in emerging economies such as Brazil, were dire. Social distancing and the reduction of jobs caused impacts in many organizations, which led to the adoption of strategies allowing employees to work from home, adjusting family residences into home offices while facing reduction in industrial production and a decrease in economic activities. The pandemic also changed consumption behaviors, the use of social media (social networks), and people's socioenvironmental awareness. This research aims to evaluate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of social media, on environmental awareness, on sustainable consumption awareness and on the social responsibility awareness of different generations in Brazil one year after the beginning of the pandemic. For data analysis, the structural equation modeling method was used from a final sample of 1120 respondents. The results indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic positively influences the growing in social media usage (environmental issues and social responsibility issues) and sustainable consumption awareness. The study highlights that social media usage has the ability to positively influence environmental awareness, sustainable consumption awareness, and social responsibility awareness. The results provide a framework to analyze the consequential factors of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainability awareness and the use of social media.