With rapidly changing conditions due to COVID-19, communicating via social media has never been more important. Social media is the only medium through which we can know the happenings of the outside world in this pandemic. The sudden increase in people being indoors has led to a change in lifestyle where consumers have shifted to spending more time online than before.
As 2020 moved around, the outbreak transformed into a universal pandemic. In each new nation, the infection spreads to fuelled frenzy and interest for data with respect to the disease. Therefore, Social media or online networking became both an irreplaceable wellspring of indispensable data and a fruitful ground for hazardous gossip-mongering, with cases of equivalent stun esteem yet fluctuating truth making large waves over the world.
The WHO Director-General even stated: “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic.”
This circumstance is the demonstration of the crude intensity of web-based life, and an indication of the amount we accomplished with regards to diminishing the spread of hazardous untruths on the web.
The coronavirus is not the first pandemic to erupt in the age of social media. At any rate, three other worldwide pandemics happened in the ten years going before it. The H1N1 (swine influenza) pandemic, the Ebola plague, and the Zika flare-up completely had noticeable and generally reported, effect via web-based networking media discussions. The people used social media to look for directives, but unreliable and/or unofficial sources had the loudest voices.
Before the social media was very malicious and could not be relied on any fact or news or misinformation going around but these days we’ve made tremendous progress. Social networks have matured in terms of their functionality, big organizations got better at communicating online, and, following the large-scale misinformation campaigns of 2016, people have gotten a bit better at telling truth from fiction.
WHO and other public health organizations also use social media to inform the public about the outbreak and control the panic. Social media has also been instrumental in helping improve the situation. People are giving money to struggling hospitals, as well as individuals at risk of dying from the disease. Big companies like Western Union and Tencent are also joining in, encouraging their clients and users to donate to the cause. Scientists are using social media tools to collaborate. The coronavirus genome was openly published early on during the outbreak, allowing thousands of researchers to brainstorm possible solutions, cures and explanations.
Regular people can simply use social media to provide moral support to those affected by the deadly virus. In a typically Chinese display of solidarity, WeChat users from across China published pictures of their local food in support of those in Wuhan.
Internet-based life gives a kind of aggregate lamenting space. Occasions like these can be difficult to process mentally, and much harder to comprehend. At the point when one of the researchers to initially find the infection surrendered to the illness, his passing started discussions about the magnanimous boldness of individuals battling the flare-up. His memory was respected by a huge number of netizens.
Social networking is doing its part by making new apparatuses to handle counterfeit news and fear inspired notions. Now, they’re accomplishing good overall to help individuals influenced by the infection. They fuel logical coordinated effort, make gathering pledges openings, and — maybe, in particular — enables the isolated individuals to beat their detachment.
