COVID-19 and Social Media
Coronavirus changed our daily routine
COVID-19 has sparked different attitudes coming forward in society. A part of the society reacted by panic buying and stocking on personal protection supplies. It demonstrated how fragile supply chains are at the moment. Communities acted by protecting and reaching out to the vulnerable population. They reached out to those isolated in need of care and support. Social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp became primarily resource used to create groups and coordinate community activities of people by geographic locations.
The switch to social platforms enabled the way of communication to be faster, seamless, and with the greater reach to the community. Social media platforms had a rapid increase in numbers of news, advice requests, and people reaching out for support. Platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp helped local communities to directly and efficiently respond to reports of lockdowns, travel restrictions, and death tolls during the early stages of the pandemic.
COVID-19 had affected life rhythms
Schools closed down, millions of people had to adjust to working from home, and to a new reality of being stuck at home. The falling routines made us look for ways to fill out the extra time that we have gotten in our hands. In the absence of jam-packed calendars, people turned to social media challenges. Amid the pandemic, challenges were used to bring families together, spark the artist, or prompt to unlock the new skills. The promise of these challenges is to occupy the extra time, ward off boredom, and give a moment of online fame.
Following on the Social Media challenges, I had a pleasure to interview Dr. Lynnette G. Leonard, Associate Professor at the American University in Bulgaria. Professor Leonard was one of the people who participated in the #beingamom challenge on Facebook. The challenge is about finding 10 photos depicting what it was like for you to be a mom. The challenge is supposed to last 10 days and each day you would post a picture of the day in the life with your kids without any explanation.
Description: Day 4/10 of “being a Mom” challenge:
Every day I will select a picture from a day in the life of being a “Mom” and post it without a single explanation and welcome anyone to take the challenge.
“The way I approached the challenge was trying to show more about my girls’ personalities”, said Professor Leonard. She continued talking about how it is unusual for her to put a lot of pictures of the girls up on social media as well as to participate in social media challenges. “I talk about the girls and the things that they say but I do not necessarily talk about my role in it”. She described this decision being driven by the fact of seeing her friends and family more willingly participating in the social media challenges now. She described #beingamom challenge as a time for reflection. “It was nice to look back at all of the photos. I think I was a bit more nostalgic about other times and I had time to look back [on them]”. She also talked about the following challenge bringing awareness of actively being a mom right now. “A lot of times being a mom is like surviving each moment; it always seems very fast and reactionary whereas everything had slowed down except for my girls.” She described them as expressive, emotive, and interactive. The last picture Professor Leonard shared from day 7 of #beingamom challenge is one of the examples of it. The picture was taken in the United States on the bench next to the statue of two little kids reading a book. “They didn’t just sit next to the statue and smiled, but they were interacting with the statue as its real kids”.
“It is interesting as I don’t always lead with the mom side of my identity especially on social media in part because I don’t necessarily show my role in that”
Partially the following challenge helped to distract people from everything that’s going around. Professor Leonard described #beingamom as a way to express what’s happening now and how life has changed for families. “What’s nice sometimes about focusing on children and being a mom, it is as much as you are sucked into to every minute and every day when you are interacting for a lot of it you are working hard for the future”.
#beingamom challenge became one of many examples of the social media challenges that sparked the internet this spring. Social Media challenges became a main part of the pandemic reality in the comfort of people’s homes. These are just some of the other biggest challenges sweeping the world amid the lockdown.
Safe Hands challenge became the first of the social media challenges this spring. The World Health Organization started the campaign in an attempt to spread awareness of the handwashing techniques to overcome the coronavirus. Celebrities and social media influencers joined the challenge and published videos promoting the challenge among their followers.
In March, Drake’s song “Nonstop” inspired a viral TikTok challenge. The lyrics inspired the challenge followed “I just flipped the switch”. When the lights are switched people swap clothes, poses, and attitudes portrayed by the other character before the switch.
Pillow challenge inspired people to create a fashion look turning a pillow into a striking quarantine outfit. The challenge gave the freedom to people to make a fashion statement using a simple item — a typical pillow. The main attribute was the belt positioned around the waist. Some even accessorized it with a heavy belt, pearl necklace, and funky shoes.
Amid the pandemic, people switched their focus from going to public institutions and museums to online art challenges. The following challenge gave the opportunity to people participating to recreate famous artworks at the safety of their homes. Participants used food, clothes, toilet paper, and more accessories to remake the famous artworks. A Russian Facebook group called “Isolation” had also followed a trend featuring at-home replicas of sculptures, paintings, and movie scenes.
Until Tomorrow Instagram’s challenge made users share on the social media their weird or embarrassing pictures with the caption “#untiltomorrow”. To take part in the challenge, people would have to like someone’s picture with the hashtag #untiltomorrow. After that, you should receive a message to share a picture of yourself with the same caption. The following picture should stay on the social media platform for 24 hours.
The Quarantine Travel social media challenge required people to recreate their best, funniest, and most original travel pictures from the safety of their homes. People would have to find a picture from their latest travels, recreate that picture’s settings from the comfort of their house, and share side by side on the social media.
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