Digital Information Approach through Social Media among Gen Z and Millennials: The Global Scenario during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

An infodemic represents a concern for public health, influencing the general population’s perceptions of key health issues. Misinformation is rapidly spread by social media, particularly among young generations. We used data from the WHO “Social Media and COVID-19” study, which was conducted in 24 countries worldwide on over 23,000 subjects aged 18–40 years, to explore Generation Z and Millennials’ models for health-information-seeking behaviors on social media. We summarized data on the most used sources of information, content of interest, and content sharing, as well as the sentiment toward the infodemic, through descriptive statistics and Chi-square test to verify the differences between groups. Among the survey respondents, 9475 (40.3%) were from high-income countries (HIC), 8000 (34.1%) from upper-middle-income countries (UMIC), and 6007 (25.6%) from lower-middle-income countries (LMIC). Social media were the most used sources of information to retrieve news on COVID-19 disease (about 79% in HIC, 87% in UMIC, and 90% in LIC) and the COVID-19 vaccine (about 78% in HIC and about 88% in UMIC and LIC). More than a half of the young respondents declared that they pay attention to scientific contents (about 51% in HIC, 59% in UMIC, and 55% in LMIC). Finally, most young participants reported feeling overwhelmed by the infodemic. However, this sentiment did not stop them from seeking information about COVID-19. Our findings highlight the importance of shaping public health interventions and campaigns on social media platforms and leveraging scientific contents. Public health authorities should work also on strategies to improve the digital literacy of the population as a driving force to empower them and achieve better health outcomes.

Generation Z and Millennials’ food-sharing behaviour: a cross-generational analysis of motivations, satisfaction and behavioural intention

“…Third, the study contributes to the extant literature on cross-generational studies and consumer behaviour (Blandi et al, 2022;Gumasing and Niro, 2023;Hartijasti and Cho, 2018;Manley et al, 2023;Wahyuningsih et al, 2022). However, this is the first study to incorporate the generational differences of this behavioural model in the food tourism context and it specifically highlights that age plays a moderating role in determining food sharing intentions and future behaviour.…”

“…Previous research has stated that there are significant differences between cross-generational cohorts in the use of the Internet to seek digital information (Blandi et al. , 2022) and to share it (Hartijasti and Cho, 2018; Sun and Xing, 2022; Wahyuningsih et al.…”

“…Previous research has stated that there are significant differences between cross-generational cohorts in the use of the Internet to seek digital information (Blandi et al, 2022) and to share it (Hartijasti and Cho, 2018;Sun and Xing, 2022;Wahyuningsih et al, 2022). According to generational theory, each generational cohort possesses characteristics that are unique to that group (Brosdahl and Carpenter, 2011).…”

“…, 2022). Prior research indicates significant intergenerational differences in the use of the Internet to seek digital information (Blandi et al. , 2022), share personal information (Hartijasti and Cho, 2018; Sun and Xing, 2022; Wahyuningsih et al.…”

Exploring COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake in Nairobi’s urban informal settlements: an unsupervised machine learning analysis of a longitudinal prospective cohort study from 2021 to 2022

“…In particular, it is important to understand how young adults receive and interpret information regarding COVID-19, as some studies suggest this age group may be extremely hesitant because of perceived low risk of severe outcomes, mistrust in authority and fear regarding side effects especially around infertility and pregnancy outcomes 31–33. A global study found young people were most likely to search for COVID-19 and other health information from social media, raising concerns about exposure to misinformation 34…”