Research: Social media use for health information bringing people in depression and secondary trauma

New Delhi: A Researcher at the Penn State University in the US – Bu Zhong says the excessive use of social media for Covid-19 health information is related to both depression and secondary trauma. “We found that social media use was rewarding up to a point, as it provided informational, emotional and peer support related to Covid-19 health topics,”

“However, excessive use of social media led to mental health issues,” Bu Zhong added

The research was done on 320 participants – who are living in the urban district of Wuhan, China and the study is published in the Journal of computers in Human Behaviour.

Researcher Bu Zhong noted down all activities of participants in which he noted how participants are sharing the health related information through social media with their family, friends and colleagues. Specifically in ‘WeChat’ application, which is China’s most popular social media mobile app.

The team used an instrument created to measure Facebook addiction to assess participant’s use of WeChat. The survey also assessed participants’ health behaviour changes as a result of using social media.

“We found that the Wuhan residents obtained tremendous informational and peer support but slightly less emotional support when they accessed and shared health information about Covid on WeChat,” said Zhong.

According to the Research – More than 160 participants are facing some level of depression out of 320 and 20 per cent of 320 participants – are suffering from moderate or severe depression.

The respondents who reported – facing secondary trauma, 80 per cent of them are at low levels of trauma, 13 per cent respondent reported moderate trauma and 7 per cent respondents are at high levels of trauma. None of the participants reported having any depressive or traumatic disorders before the survey was conducted.

“Our results shows that social media usage was related to both depression and secondary trauma during the early part of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan,” said Zhong.

“The findings suggest that taking a social media break from time to time may help to improve people’s mental well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic.” The Report says.

_Vinayak.Barot