Social Media Glues People Together

Tianling Zhu
Marketing in the Age of Digital
4 min readMar 18, 2020

As the coronavirus became a global pandemic, people are suggested to stay at home and conduct most of their works, studies, and entertainment without massive gathering. The importance of social media has never been so valued as they are the major channel through which people could get a timely interaction with the greater public.

The news article <Coronavirus collabs: the social media games entertaining the masses — and bringing us together> goes deeper into how various kinds of social media are being supportive during this particular time with all their creative users who generate cheering and sympathetic contents throughout the world.

Social Media Cultivate People’s Interests

According to the news article, social media reached out to the greatest number of people through their common interests beyond job, location and socio-political factors. Residents from all coronavirus outbreak regions are experiencing a much higher Internet surfing time than usual, and the most reasonable direction of their online activities would be toward where they feel most interested.

Take myself as an example, being a pet-lover myself, I realized that most of my time spent on Instagram were for kitten and dog-related content. Similarly, when I learned to shop for our routine groceries completely online, quite a lot of the browsing times were on foods and snacks for my lovable cat.

Pic 1. Carson Ellis uses her songs to appeal people sharing their lyrics online during quarantine times.

The news article indicated that people are drawn to music bloggers, movie commentators, painters and all kinds of online public figures with at least one particular talent. With people sharing the common interest grouped together online, supportive and sympathetic effects could be generated as people communicate with their beloved languages and topics as a distraction or mind-soothing method.

Social Media Highlights Positive Catharsis

With the pandemic-driven social distancing enforced globally, people may have shown different kinds of psychological stresses and they may need proper ways to have them taken care of. The news article also shed lights on how social media emphasized positive ways to let negative emotions out in healthy ways.

For instance, enjoying classic movies in accordance to different moods at the time being maybe a convenient way to kill times and rebalance one’s mind. Particular movie-themed websites are sharing information on such topics to the public so as to help those in need. Likewise, music fans are encouraged to write their own lyrics and share the works out within discussion groups on Quora or hashtags on Twitter.

In this particular time of massive panic and sudden change of lifestyle, a proper and healthy mechanism teaching people how to keep a mentally stable life is more than meaningful. And the social media platforms are truly the most influential channel to have this job done.

Pic 2. Spotify user Rita Wilson (a COVID-19 patient) collected supportive album for quarantine people.

Social Media Became Handy Tools for the Time Being

As the recent news article has mentioned, countless of people online are providing their own distinctive ways for people to discuss, engage and appreciate. For instance, people in gardening arts could share the way they renovate their backyards, artists share the most recent painting works, and designers share creative ideas from their work from time to time.

I feel more than safe and comfortable seeing all the available resources among all social media platforms as I could easily find anything that I would possibly need to enjoy, to learn and to experience. Over the past years, I occasionally looked for calming videos and music episodes online to facilitate my sleep. Popular YouTube videos are almost the same based on my knowledge. Nevertheless, the most recent booming contents among social media have changed the whole picture. As of now, there are many more resources for people bearing different needs online to enjoy and provide constructive feedback afterward.

Pic 3. Designer ‘carsonellis’ sharing creative art piece on Instagram

Conclusion

Social Media turned out to be a more than powerful weapon to support, guide and facilitate our routine lives, especially during emergent times. As the news has noticed, they are serving a great job in gluing people altogether and have everyone guided through a group effort that is precious and effective.

Reference:

Source of the News Article: <Coronavirus collabs: the social media games entertaining the masses — and bringing us together>

Source of Pic 1: https://www.instagram.com/elueramusic/?utm_source=ig_embed

Source of Pic 2: www.spotify.com/ritawilsonsquarantunes

Source of Pic 3: https://www.instagram.com/carsonellis/?utm_source=ig_embed

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