Review of Related Literature

According to Padilla and Blanco (2020), social media platforms are among the most commonly
used sources of information in the world during a pandemic, it is easy and inexpensive access to the
internet and a large number of registered users on these platforms make them one of the simplest and
effective ways to disseminate information. Social media becomes more helpful to maintain
communication with family and friends in order to reduce isolation and boredom associated with
anxiety and long term distress. The rapid distribution of protocols at regional, national, and international
levels has been one of the important characteristics of social media in this pandemic. Follow responsible
use of social media is important during a pandemic to quickly spread new important information and
not to spread fake information, such as fake data or myths.

Jackson Kushner (2020) stated on his blog that during the 1918 flu pandemic, people didn’t have
the same sources of information like in the 21st century for sharing news and information easily. With
the rise of social media in the 21st century, people use it to get the latest news updates. Social media is
a great way for everyone to stay connected despite being separated during pandemic. But social media
can spread falsehood as well. It is extremely important to find reliable sources of information about
COVID-19.

Social media websites showed a sharp increase in usage after the implementation of social
distancing. Since people cannot see each other in person, for the meantime, social media is their main
form of communication to maintain relationships. According to Facebook’s analytics department,
reported over 50 percent increase in overall messaging during the last month of March 2020. WhatsApp
has also reported a 40 percent increase in usage. Moreover, there has been an increase in the use of
Zoom since the start of the pandemic. Global downloads for TikTok went up 5 percent in March
compared to February. A new service called QuarantineChat that connects people randomly reported
having over 15,000 users a month after its launch in March 2020 (as cited in Wikipedia, 2020).

According to Victor Snyder (2020), social media usage is both increasing and changing in the
COVID-19 era. July 2020 saw a rise 10.5% in social media usage, compared with July 2019 in
GlobalWebIndex’s survey. Some 46% of women and 41% of men said they’ve spent more time on social
media during the pandemic. As they spend their lockdown time online, consumers are moving onto new
platforms and discovering entertainers and brands they hadn’t noticed previously. One of the most
notable examples is the rise of TikTok, it encourages content creation collaboration through duets,
dance contests and lip syncing battles.

Gelo Gonzales (2019) in our country Philippines, the amount of time spent online every day
grew from 9 hours and 29 minutes last year to 10 hours and 2 minutes this year, the world’s maximum.
Brazil clocks at 9 hours and 27 minutes comes second, while Thailand is third at 9 hours and 11 minutes.
At 9 hours and 38 minutes last year, the Philippines came in second to Thailand. Philippines also In terms
of internet use, clocking in at 5 hours and 4 minutes everyday, far from the global average of 3 hours
and 28 minutes, tops the world in front of a desktop or laptop computer. In terms of social media
penetration, the Philippines is in top just as last year. On at least one kind of social media site, 99
percent of internet users are with a 99 percent penetration of social media, there are 3 other nations:
Malaysia, Taiwan, and the UAE. The Filipino social media users have risen from 67,000,000 to
76,000,000 as of this year. Among those 76 million users, 75 million of them are using Facebook. The
Social Media app "Instagram" has one of the poorest performance in the Philippines. The time amounts
to 3 hours and a few minutes last year. Most of the Filipinos access social media on their phone for
watching news and looking for information.

According to Toquero and Talidong, the Philippines, though a developing country, is attuned to
using digital technology for social communication. Based on data (NapoleonCat, 2020) as of January
2020, there are 73, 170,000 Filipinos who use Facebook, which is 66.4% of the entire population in the
country. Socialization using Facebook has been one of the favorite inclinations of the Filipinos prior to
the pandemic. Nowadays, there are many Facebook group pages that emerged to update themselves
with the latest trends and news reports related to the pandemic. In addition, the potential for using
social media for forming virtual social relationships is very likely to happen in the Philippines as many
people are eager to assess the government efforts to fight against COVID‐19. This situation has been
proven during the heightening of the confirmed cases of COVID‐19 in the country. To temporarily divert
the attention of the people from the psychological pressures due to the negative news brought by the
pandemic, the use of emerging technologies such as YouTube, Facebook, and Tik Tok have been the
gateways for them to socialize in the virtual world.

Staying home mostly during pandemic has become a struggle for most Filipinos, like what
Johnson Rey "JR" Oclarit experienced. Johnson Rey "JR" Oclarit, a citizen of Davao City, was a musician
after about 15 years. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted its livelihood as all activities have
been canceled. The Davao City local government has managed to find a way to allow its people to have
fun even if experiencing community lockdown. LGU has coordinated Davao Cluster Wars and TikTok
challenge with partner distributors from Smart Communications, Inc. to protect the public safety from
COVID-19. Finalists will receive Smart, TNT, and Sun prepaid loads, among other rewards for their
participation. Through Facebook and TikTok applications, participants submitted their competition
entries online from the safety of their homes, as well as Oclarit. Using this Davao Cluster Wars contest,
Oclarit was able to share his talent with others despite having a lockdown. They won the Long Distance
Duet competition, together with his partner Jenna Pascual, who works as a professional singer (as cited
in Smart, Corporate 2020).

Fears of Infection

Victor Snyder (2020) stated that over the last few months, fears of infection combined with
lockdowns and limitations of movement have pushed the people to use social media. In social media,
people feel that they are safe and they are not at risk of infection to interact, be entertained, distract
themselves, and find inspiration. One of the major factors behind the recent increase in social media use
is a desire for entertainment, which can distract the people from the seriousness of the situation of
pandemic. It’s a natural response in tough times to seek inspirational content. Instead of thinking about
the situation, people are looking for positive content to inspire them during a pandemic. Fears of
infection and the social restrictions of the pandemic have contributed to substantial changes in the way
that users interact with social media to seek creativity, connections and inspiring entertainment.

According to Brooks, Webster, Smith, and Woodland (2019), Coronavirus disease outbreak has
seen many countries ask people who may have come into contact with infection to isolate themselves in
their house or in a particular facility. The decisions on how quarantine should be implemented should be
based on the best evidence available. Most of the studies examined reported negative psychological
impacts, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress, confusion, and anger. Stressors included longer
periods of quarantine, fears of infection, dissatisfaction, boredom, insufficient supplies, insufficient data,
financial loss and stigma. Long-lasting effects have been proposed by some researchers. In situations
where quarantine is considered essential, officials should quarantine individuals for no longer than
needed, provide specific quarantine justification and procedure information, and ensure that adequate
supplies are made accessible. It can be helpful to appeal to altruism by educating the public about the
benefits of quarantine for broader society.

Frustration, Boredom and Sense of Isolation

According to Oosthoek (2020), mental well-being experts are sounding cautions over pandemic
related misery and uneasiness. But a few specialists say there's another emotion we have to take fair as
truly boredom. It’s not just that boredom is an uncomfortable emotion, it is also that boredom impacts
our ability to pay attention and is associated with risk-taking behaviour and increases our risk for
depression and anger problems. Beyond the danger to our waistlines and our general health, there may
be a more immediate public health concern over boredom. A study of compliance with quarantine in
Toronto during the 2003 SARS pandemic showed boredom was the greatest emotional disincentive to
comply with quarantine. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed but it found that those who were more
prone to boredom were more likely to break physical distancing rules. Previous research shows people
who experience trauma or emotionally destabilizing events also experience more boredom.

Anxiety and Anger

One study by Samantha Brooks et al. (2020), contrasted students who had been isolated and
those not isolated immediately after the quarantine period and found no distinction between the groups
regarding post-traumatic stress symptoms or general mental health conditions. However, the whole
investigation population were college undergraduates and in this way it is possible that these
conclusions can't be summed up to the more extensive population. Only one study contrasted mental
results during isolate and later results and found that during isolate, 7% (126 of 1656) ) showed anxiety
symptoms and 17% (275) showed feelings of anger, while 4–6 months after isolate these side effects had
decreased to 3% (anxiety) and 6% (anger). After isolation, numerous members kept on participating in
evasion practices. For medical care workers, being isolated was essentially and emphatically connected
with avoidance practices, for example, limiting direct contact with patients and not reporting to work.

Posttraumatic Stress and Avoidance

The online media stage has been utilized to conquer mental strains during the mass isolate and
lockdown. This emergency features the qualities of web-based media by the way they can be utilized for
enthusiastic help (Depoux et al., 2020). In web-based media stage, individuals shared numerous amusing
recordings about how to imaginatively manage the lockdown, made neighborhood Facebook bunches
that coordinate amusement and down to earth backing to help neighbors who need help with shopping
for food or childcare and the snappy ascent of applications and functionalities permitted live visit and
video meetings with various individuals all at once (Ahmed et al., 2020).

New Information

According to Araz Ramadan Ahmad and Hersh Rasool Murad (2020), people have already relied
on social media to collect information and news prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. Since the outbreak
of the virus in December 2019, people in many countries have relied on social media to gather
information about the virus. People are also interested in social media in Iraqi Kurdistan. The use of the
Internet is closely associated with behaviors related to health information. In addition, according to
Kemp, there were 29.82 million internet users and 21 million social media users in Iraq. Information
from social media platforms such as Twitter, has been used continuously over the past 20 years to
research health trends and better understand outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Entertainment

Seyyed Mohsen Azizi et al. (2019), in recent years, significant changes have taken place around
the world regarding the quantitative and qualitative expansion of the internet, social networks and
number of people who use them. Social networks include websites and applications that allow users to
share content, ideas, opinions, beliefs, feelings, and personal, social, and educational experiences. They
also allow communication between a wide range of users at global level. Instagram, Telegram,
Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and WhatsApp are among the most popular and commonly used virtual social
networks. Currently (2018), the number of internet users in the world is about 4.021 billion and also
3.196 billion people use social networks on a regular basis worldwide. Iran is one of the developing
countries where the internet and social networks have grown significantly. The use of social media has
tripled over the past three years, and more than 47 million Iranians are using social networks, according
to the Iranian Center of Statistics.

According to Koeze and Popper (2020), Americans have been spending more of their lives online
during the coronavirus pandemic, they are seeking out entertainment on streaming services like Netflix
and Youtube, and looking to connect with one another on social media outlets like facebook. With the
rise of social distancing, we are seeking out new ways to connect, mostly through video chat because
people seems want to do more than just connect through messaging and text such as Google’s video,
Duo, and Houseparty, which allow groups of friends to join a single video chat and play games together.

Communication

According to Rebecca Schein, PhD et al. (2017), social media is currently being used by public
health agencies as a broadcasting outlet to reinforce messages from existing media sources like radio,
television and print media. A new way of engaging with the target markets and the co-creating content.
To integrate user-generated content and reviews, companies have had to change their communication
strategies. The process of co-creating content for the users to rate and rank or comment to do
communications, It is progressively viewed more than the resulting message, To offer messages greater
credibility, increase morale and build users ' trust. Connections with organizations, Social media, in
comparison to conventional media promotions, offers Fresh possibilities for integrating and interjecting
public health messages into Canadians' everyday online interactions. It will also allow public health
communicators to deliver a variety of health promotion messages and self-monitoring resources via
mobile communication in the future. An invention that can improve the reach of those without
computers, Public health messages will be able to reach the day-to-day health discussions and the
Canadians' Activities.

Relieve Stress

According to The Joint Chiropractic (2020), it’s come to be the widespread know-how that extra
net use ends in extra stress, specifically in terms of social media. It’s difficult to look at a Facebook wall
full of flattering images and boasting statements and now no longer sense a little “examine and despair”
whilst you see your friends and associates reputedly taking part in existence tons extra than you.
However, a new study observe carried out by way of means of the Pew Research Center’s Internet
Project has proven that the ones stunning snapshots and jealousy-inducing social media updates don’t
actually result in greater pressure - in fact, there has been no distinction in pressure stages in men who
used or didn’t use social media, and there has been a decrease in pressure in ladies who used social
media. The analysis consisted of a phone examination of 2013 US adults managed in English and
Spanish. The members were evaluated on the Perceived Stress Scale, (PSS), which tests the degree to
which individuals feel pressure in their lives. The scale depends on answers to ten inquiries that evaluate
whether an individual feels their lives overloaded, eccentric or wild. Individuals only felt more pressure
when they saw their companions enduring upsetting functions. Particularly high in ladies, the
researchers called this impact "the expense of mindful". Simply put, when they are mindful that
somebody in their lives is experiencing a distressing function, they feel more pressure, as well - stress is
infectious. Online media permits them to be more mindful of when their loved ones are in a tough
situation and may prompt this kind of "social pressure".

According to Toquero and Talidong (2020), the use of emerging technologies can empower
students as they can share critical information and give relevant feedback in the virtual world to
expedite the process of information exchange especially during the pandemic. The positive effects of
emerging technologies can also cater to the emotional and psychological needs to lessen their stress and
anxiety due to the home quarantine.

Theoretical Framework

This study is anchored to the Social Information Processing Theory also known as SIP developed
by Joseph Walther in 1992. The theory explains online interpersonal communication without nonverbal
cues and how people manage relationships in a computer – mediated environment. In a computer –
mediated environment, communication has become easier and more convenient with the use of
smartphones. Personal relationships may demonstrate the same relational aspects and qualities as face
to face relationships. These online connections may help encourage non face-to - face interactions.
 At the beginning of the 1990’s, with the rise of the internet as well as the World Wide Web. The
interest increased in studying how the internet had an impact on communications among people.
Joseph Walther, a communication and media theorist, said that computer – mediated environment
users would be transitioning to this limited medium and then use it to develop close relationships
effectively. Walther recognized that a new theory was needed to explain the new nature of online
communication, that’s why he created the Social Information Processing Theory.