Background Despite scientific evidence supporting the importance of wearing masks to curtail the spread of COVID-19, wearing masks has stirred up a significant debate particularly on social media. Objective This study aimed to investigate the topics associated with the public discourse against wearing masks in the United States. We also studied the relationship between the anti-mask discourse on social media and the number of new COVID-19 cases. Methods We collected a total of 51,170 English tweets between January 1, 2020, and October 27, 2020, by searching for hashtags against wearing masks. We used machine learning techniques to analyze the data collected. We investigated the relationship between the volume of tweets against mask-wearing and the daily volume of new COVID-19 cases using a Pearson correlation analysis between the two-time series. Results The results and analysis showed that social media could help identify important insights related to wearing masks. The results of topic mining identified 10 categories or themes of user concerns dominated by (1) constitutional rights and freedom of choice; (2) conspiracy theory, population control, and big pharma; and (3) fake news, fake numbers, and fake pandemic. Altogether, these three categories represent almost 65% of the volume of tweets against wearing masks. The relationship between the volume of tweets against wearing masks and newly reported COVID-19 cases depicted a strong correlation wherein the rise in the volume of negative tweets led the rise in the number of new cases by 9 days. Conclusions These findings demonstrated the potential of mining social media for understanding the public discourse about public health issues such as wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results emphasized the relationship between the discourse on social media and the potential impact on real events such as changing the course of the pandemic. Policy makers are advised to proactively address public perception and work on shaping this perception through raising awareness, debunking negative sentiments, and prioritizing early policy intervention toward the most prevalent topics.

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Wearable devices are increasingly recognized for their potential to improve health and wellbeing. However, challenges remain for wide-scale adoption and use. This paper explores perception and reactions towards wearable devices with a particular emphasis on factors that influence the adoption and use to improve health and well-being and which can also inform their design as components of a behavioral change system. We use social media analytics to analyze and categorize tweets related to major manufacturers of consumer wearable devices from June 1, 2017-May 31, 2018. We used extant literature on the design of persuasive systems to inform the definition of pertinent categories. The findings confirmed the relevance of persuasive design features such as Dialog, credibility, and social support, though to various degrees. The analysis sheds light on other user priorities pertaining to device characteristics, integration with other systems, issues surrounding actually wearing these devices on a regular basis.