The Effects of Pandemic-Related Fear on Social Connectedness Through Social Media Use and Self-Disclosure

Abstract

Abstract. In light of the prolonged period of social distancing and highly mediated communication patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study sought to understand how pandemic-related fear affects social connectedness. Drawing from the Internet-enhanced self-disclosure and fear-eliciting affiliation hypotheses, survey findings from a stratified sample collected among Hong Kong university students ( N = 310) revealed that pandemic-related fear positively influences social connectedness not only through self-disclosure but also through the combination of information seeking and self-disclosure. Social interaction, however, does not mediate the relationship between fear and social connectedness on its own. Overall, we argue that fear motivated people to seek information, self-disclose, and articulate connectedness with society. During this process, social media provided an essential ground and self-disclosure proved a viable tool. This study demonstrated that negative emotions aroused in crisis situations might result in constructive behaviors, which is contingent on how people react to mitigate the negative consequences.

Willingness to self‐disclose in romantic relationships only marginally predicts COVID stress but there are indirect effects of self‐esteem and relationship commitment

“…Participants who had a high level of willingness to self‐disclose might have encouraged more responsiveness and thus received more support from their partner, so they might not experience much COVID stress (Visserman et al., 2022). Interestingly, other research during the COVID‐19 pandemic suggests more favorable outcomes related to self‐disclosure, however many of these studies were not limited to examining disclosure to a romantic partner and included, for example, disclosing on social media (Quan et al., 2023; Wu‐Ouyang & Hu, 2023).…”

More Mobile Connectedness, Less Well-Being?

“…To date, most empirical studies still focus on a single social media platform (e.g., Zell & Moeller, 2018), or have asked people to report their general platform use without differentiating specific platforms (e.g., Wu-Ouyang & Hu, 2022), which does not provide a holistic view of an individual's communication system. Only a few empirical studies discussed these issues from holistic viewpoints.…”

“…Some studies have found that social media use reinforces relationship satisfaction and well-being (e.g., Zell & Moeller, 2018), whereas some other studies found that social media displaces face-to-face communication and was related to negative well-being (see the review from Keles et al, 2019). One possible reason for this elusive conclusion might be the single focus on one social media platform (e.g., Chansiri & Wongphothiphan, 2021; Zell & Moeller, 2018), or the focus on general social media usage without differentiating between platforms (e.g., Wu-Ouyang & Hu, 2022).…”

“…Valkenburg and Peter (2009) argued that when people disclose more personal information to others, it can generate satisfied relationships and improve well-being. Many researchers have supported this perspective by finding that mobile social media use (Chan & Li, 2020; Davis, 2012) and social media use for information seeking (Wu-Ouyang & Hu, 2022) positively affect relationship satisfaction and enhance well-being.…”

Adolescents’ school experiences: Understanding the needs of young people post COVID-19

“…For some, online connections were reported to be helpful and allowed them time to re ect and appreciate their friendships more, whilst others described lockdowns as negatively impacting their friendships [9]. Connecting with friends over social media and phone conversations was reported to assist in increasing feelings of social connection to some extent, however these methods do not su ciently compensate for face-to-face connection [10,11]. Literature suggests that some young people struggled with adapting to a new way of connecting with their friends.…”