Social Media Use, Psychological Distress and Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Regarding the COVID-19 Among a Sample of the Population of Pakistan

Rizwan, Muhammad; Ahmad, Tauseef; Qi, Xuehong; Murad, Manal Abdulaziz; Baig, Mukhtiar; Sagga, Abdullah Khalid; Tariq, Saba; Baig, Fahd; Naz, Rozina; Jin, Hui

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.754121

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The results are in line with previous studies (Ferdous et al, 2020 ; Alqahtani et al, 2021a , b ; Rizwan et al, 2021 ). Eventually, people followed preventive protocols and started social media tools for communication purposes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…The current pandemic of COVID-19 diverged the masses toward social media use for staying in touch, getting an education, or entertainment. In this attitude and inclination of indulging in using social media to compensate for their physical social interactions, an active social media use was observed (Baig and Waheed, 2016 ; Reuter et al, 2016 ; Azlan et al, 2020 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ; Carvalho Alves et al, 2021 ; Jogezai et al, 2021 ; Pandya and Lodha, 2021 ; Rizwan et al, 2021 ; Zhao and Zhou, 2021 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Andrade et al ( 2020 ) and Zhong et al ( 2020 ) have argued that the population should follow the preventive measures given by local authorities to combat the pandemic and minimize its effect on the general public's health. For an effective introduction of COVID-19 about adequate prevention, people must be timely made aware of the fundamental principles regarding its severity, challenges, and the grave consequences it can offer (Andrade et al, 2020 ; Kumar et al, 2021 ; Rizwan et al, 2021 ). In this study, the use of KAP theory addresses that when the people are given due knowledge they intuitively develop a distancing attitude and get inclined toward social media use when they are limited to physical interaction with other people.…”

Section: Theoretical Foundationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local authorities used the social media platform to run their preventive measures and control campaigns as COVID-19 knowledge diverged them to interactive and communicative online social media rather than physical gatherings (Rizwan et al, 2021 ). So, during the pandemic, many cases of addictive social media use were reported where addiction to social media use is defined as an uncontrollable, a compelling, and an excessive use of social media (Andreassen, 2015 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Knowledge and understanding about COVID-19 have intentionally forced individuals to distance themselves socially to avoid its spread, which induced the attitude toward social media among people. Elmer et al ( 2020 ) and Rizwan et al ( 2021 ) had argued that social crises like war, earthquakes, and pandemics affect the social orientations of individuals. The current pandemic of COVID-19 diverged the masses toward social media use for staying in touch, getting an education, or entertainment.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Media Application as a New Paradigm for Business Communication: The Role of COVID-19 Knowledge, Social Distancing, and Preventive Attitudes

et al. 2022

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Business firms and the public have encountered massive consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has become the most significant challenge and influenced all communities. This research study focuses on exploring the relationship between COVID-19 knowledge, social distancing, individuals' attitudes toward social media use, and practices of using social media amid the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines how attitudes toward social media use mediate the linkage between COVID-19 knowledge, social distancing, and practices for social media use. This survey uses a non-probability convenience sampling approach to collect samples and recruit willing respondents with their consent for data collection. This study recorded the feedback from 348 participants who encountered the indirect/direct effects of nationwide lockdowns, restrictions on social gatherings, and COVID-19 infection. The findings validate the proposed hypotheses for their direct effects and indicate significant β-values, t-statistics, and the p-values at p <0.001. The results validate a relationship between the COVID-19 knowledge of and social distancing practices. Similarly, the results approved a positive link between social distancing and attitudes toward social media use amid COVID-19. The findings validate the relation between social distancing and attitudes toward social media use during COVID-19 challenges (β-value = 0.22 and t-statistics = 3.078). The results show the linkage between attitudes toward social media use and practices of using social media (β-value = 0.41, and t-statistics = 7.175). Individuals' attitude toward social media use during COVID-19 mediates the connection between COVID-19 knowledge and COVID-19 practices of using social media use. The results validate the first mediation at β-value = 0.21 and t-statistic = 5.327. Similarly, the findings approve that attitudes toward social media use in the pandemic have positively mediated the relation between distancing and practices for social media use amid the crisis of COVID-19 (β-value = 0.09 and t-statistic = 2.633). The findings indicate how people have been indulged in social media to pave their business communication needs. The results provide valuable insights for the global business community. This study provides a systematic and holistic research model that helps in exploring the consequences of COVID-19. The generalizability of the findings provides valuable directions for future research related to the current pandemic.

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