Mental Health Responses to COVID-19 on Twitter

Andrea Bishop, “Mental Health Responses to COVID-19 on Twitter”
Mentor: Celeste Campos-Castillo, Sociology

The current global pandemic has contributed to an increase of mental and emotional health concern discussions on various social media sites, especially Twitter. Not only has this occurred because of social distancing, but also because of fear associated with the possibility of contracting COVID-19. Previous research has proven various evolutions of mental health responses to the pandemic and the following stay-at-home orders, mask mandates, and updated strains of the virus. Using data collected from US-based Twitter accounts containing the works corona, coronavirus, covid, or rona and mental or emotional health, we are able to see how the emotional responses to COVID-19 have evolved as the virus has persisted, and how people have interacted when discussing mental health. There is an expected amount of fear, for the authors of the tweets themselves, their families, and their jobs, however there are also various positive emotions of those who prefer the stay-at-home time or are lighting the situation through jokes. All of this data can collectively show how people have responded to COVID-19 in terms of mental health, and how best to aid their possibly deteriorating mental or emotional health at this perilous time.

Comments

  1. Great approach to better understand the potential mental health implications of the pandemic. Kudos to Andrea!

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