Social Media's Impact on a Global Pandemic

It has no secret that the global pandemic of the COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted our daily lives. Not just in the United States but around the world, daily tasks such as going to work, going to school, going to the gym, sporting events, political events and more have all been cancelled, and the world is all going through these uncharted waters together. With all of this taking place in 2020, there is obviously going to be a lot of opinions and news spread on all social media platforms as this is the first time in this era of social media where we have had an event of this global significance and where it feels that normal life and the world as we know it has stopped and thrown us into this twilight zone kind of reality. I have wondered in the past about events that seem so large that the world stops such as 9/11 and the assassination of JFK, if those events had happened during the era of social media, and this is an event on that type of scale which will show all of us the impact that social media will have while we learn new information daily about the COVID-19 outbreak. This time will be a huge learning moment about how social media impacts and becomes part of the narrative of this global event, and how global events like this will serve on social media.

\Currently on social media since the coronavirus reached the United States, everything got cancelled and we all became quarantined in our homes, I have seen a lot of positive content on social media platforms. Most of these posts are small things that will not exactly solve or contain the outbreak but have been used to lighten the mood and lift the spirits of those who are going through very tough times due to this virus. A lot of these consist of celebrities of all kinds, musicians, actors, and professional athletes, who are quarantined like the rest of us, holding IG live sessions where they talk to fans and answer questions, or play video games for the amusement of their followers which is something that would not be possible if it were not for the change of pace of life that has occurred over the past few weeks. Also, I have witnessed people holding fundraisers of all kind on social media, fundraisers to help a specific city, community, or hospital or just fundraising to help with COVID-19 research in general. 

There have been a lot of good that has happened on social media due to this outbreak, but also a lot of bad, and it turns bad when people are attacking the other political party. Personally, I did not follow politics at all when I started college, and have now paid a little more attention to political issues as I get older, but still do not know a ton and do not know exactly where I stand when it comes to politics. But I have seen a lot of people who are blaming democrats for the virus or someone saying it is republicans that will doom us all when it comes to COVID-19, and I can’t agree that it is good to display hatred to a political party, even if it is on social media. I have read conflicting posts from people I follow on this matter, one person saying that the outbreak has brought us closer together (no matter whether you are a republican or democrat) for the first time since the 9/11 attacks, while another post has expressed how we are blaming the other political party and this is pushing republicans and democrats even farther apart. I believe I have seen a mix of both these takes across social media, with some people trying to rally us all together to stay positive and combat this serious issue, and I have seen posts of bashing the political party opposite of what they affiliate with and blaming them for the entire outbreak.

Alright, I gave my take on what I have witnessed, but I am still curious what other bloggers are writing about on this pandemic and how social media is playing a part. I recently read an article published by Forbes titled, “How Social Media Could Shape How We Remember The COVID-19 Pandemic In Years To Come” written by Peter Suciu. He asks the question of if the COVID-19 outbreak will even be defined by social media and if social media will even play a significant role in all of this. In the article, it does discuss that social media will play a part in how we remember and document our opinions and happenings on social media, but the article argues that the pandemic’s trends on social media will have a bigger impact on the future when people who did not live through the virus will be able to see how we all dealt with the outbreak through social media, and that social media is documenting all of the content posted to review in later years of how the world dealt with a pandemic like this for the first time in the age of social media. 

This was a really interesting point made in the article because I believe it is true that our social media’s are almost like a journal, like a big diary that everybody in the world contributes to. We see people who have passed away but there social media accounts live on, almost like their page is a museum of some kind for their posts from when they were alive. Kobe Bryant’s social media pages are an example of this where although he passed away tragically, his Instagram and twitter are still alive and will be able to be looked at years into the future.

I think it is impossible for social media not to have a role in how we remember the COVID-19 pandemic. Next year, we’ll have a notification pop up from Facebook doing that “this was you one year ago today” and show a picture or post from us in quarantine. There will be memes and posts from this event that will live on for years across social media platforms. I think what the Forbes article was suggesting is that we should post during this time, and should be on social media during this time, because it will show future generations a look in on what and how we dealt with a global pandemic in a way that was not possible even 15-20 years ago.