COVID-19 information overload and generation Z's social media discontinuance intention during the pandemic lockdown

Liu, Hongfei; Liu, Wentong; Yoganathan, Vignesh; Osburg, Victoria‐Sophie

doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120600

Cited by 245 publications

(262 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Several recent studies have documented this propensity during the COVID-19 pandemic, though these concerns are likely to be germane to any sustained public health or emergency scenario. One study of young SNS users in the United Kingdom found that information overload related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in diminished psychological well-being, including unhealthy levels of the fear of COVID-19 [ 27 ]. A similar study that was conducted in Hong Kong during 2020 found a correlation between social media usage and pandemic-related anxiety as well as diminished social trust in information [ 28 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study

Neely¹,

Eldredge²,

Sanders³

2021

J Med Internet Res

184

127

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Background In recent years, medical journals have emphasized the increasingly critical role that social media plays in the dissemination of public health information and disease prevention guidelines. However, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter continue to pose unique challenges for clinical health care providers and public health officials alike. In order to effectively communicate during public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is increasingly critical for health care providers and public health officials to understand how patients gather health-related information on the internet and adjudicate the merits of such information. Objective With that goal in mind, we conducted a survey of 1003 US-based adults to better understand how health consumers have used social media to learn and stay informed about the COVID-19 pandemic, the extent to which they have relied on credible scientific information sources, and how they have gone about fact-checking pandemic-related information. Methods A web-based survey was conducted with a sample that was purchased through an industry-leading market research provider. The results were reported with a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 3. Participants included 1003 US-based adults (aged ≥18 years). Participants were selected via a stratified quota sampling approach to ensure that the sample was representative of the US population. Balanced quotas were determined (by region of the country) for gender, age, race, and ethnicity. Results The results showed a heavy reliance on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic; more than three-quarters of respondents (762/1003, 76%) reported that they have relied on social media at least “a little,” and 59.2% (594/1003) of respondents indicated that they read information about COVID-19 on social media at least once per week. According to the findings, most social media users (638/1003, 63.6%) were unlikely to fact-check what they see on the internet with a health professional, despite the high levels of mistrust in the accuracy of COVID-19–related information on social media. We also found a greater likelihood of undergoing vaccination among those following more credible scientific sources on social media during the pandemic (χ216=50.790; φ=0.258; P<.001). Conclusions The findings suggest that health professionals will need to be both strategic and proactive when engaging with health consumers on social media if they hope to counteract the deleterious effects of misinformation and disinformation. Effective training, institutional support, and proactive collaboration can help health professionals adapt to the evolving patterns of health information seeking.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study

Neely¹,

Eldredge²,

Sanders³

2021

J Med Internet Res

184

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has been proven that an enormous volume of information can be rapidly produced and circulated on social media. 46 Information overload is described as a situation whereby the amount of the information people are exposed to surpasses the level they can effectively handle. 47,48 During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was enormous and abundant of information on social media which lead to potential information overload and triggered a lot of negative behaviour.…”

Section: Cognitive Load Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Social media affordances and information abundance: Enabling fake news sharing during the COVID-19 health crisis

Apuke

Omar

2021

Health Informatics J

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This study modelled factors that predict fake news sharing during the COVID-19 health crisis using the perspective of the affordance and cognitive load theory. Data were drawn from 385 social media users in Nigeria, and Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyse the data. We found that news-find-me perception, information overload, trust in online information, status seeking, self-expression and information sharing predicted fake news sharing related to COVID-19 pandemic among social media users in Nigeria. Greater effects of news-find-me perception and information overload were found on fake news sharing behaviour as compared to trust in online information, status seeking, self-expression and information sharing. Theoretically, our study enriches the current literature by focusing on the affordances of social media and the abundance of online information in predicting fake news sharing behaviour among social media users, especially in Nigeria. Practically, we suggest intervention strategies which nudge people to be sceptical of the information they come across on social media.

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“…It has thus been shown that disclosure of generic and detailed information has the power to increase risk perception and panic in pandemic situations [11]. Moreover, information overload through social media during the pandemic has been shown to heighten social media fatigue [12]. Some authors also refer to messaging fatigue related to the pandemic as fatigue due to chronic and long-term exposure to repeated messages regarding pandemic-related information [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construction and Validation of a Brief Pandemic Fatigue Scale in the Context of the Coronavirus-19 Public Health Crisis

Cuadrado

Maldonado

Tabernero

et al. 2021

Int J Public Health

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Objectives: The chronic restrictions to mitigate the new SARS-CoV-2 virus may result in pandemic fatigue. This study set out to develop a short, reliable, valid, and gender-invariant instrument—the Pandemic Fatigue Scale (PFS).Methods: In the first phase, 300 students responded to a pilot questionnaire that allowed the reduction and refinement of the items. In the second phase, the validity, reliability, and invariance of the scale were explored among a sample of 596 participants.Results: Factor exploratory and confirmatory analyses confirmed a robust adjustment for the bifactorial structure that explained 79,36% of the variance. The two factors identified were 1) people’s demotivation in continuing to follow the recommended protective behaviors (neglect) and 2) people’s boredom regarding the pandemic-related information (boredom). The pattern of relations between the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and other variables—find through correlation, mediation, and path analyses—and the gender differences—find in the ANOVA analyses—provided strong evidence of the construct validity. Moreover, the PFS was shown to be invariant regarding gender in a multigroup factor confirmatory analysis.Conclusion: The instrument can be of utility for professionals and researchers to assess pandemic fatigue, a variable that can affect the adoption of protective measure to avoid catching and spreading the virus.

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COVID-19 information overload and generation Z's social media discontinuance intention during the pandemic lockdown

Cited by 245 publications

References 72 publications

Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study

Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study

Social media affordances and information abundance: Enabling fake news sharing during the COVID-19 health crisis

Construction and Validation of a Brief Pandemic Fatigue Scale in the Context of the Coronavirus-19 Public Health Crisis

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