Social media helped in creating terror and panic during the covid-19 pandemic in Mauritius:

Since its first appearance in China, the covid-19 has had a significant impact globally, affecting millions. This dark phase of humanity’s history will be forever remembered as the phase that brought forward many changes in our lives, especially in social media as a means of communication and entertainment. We have witnessed how fake news can be transmitted fast and how damaging it can be, especially during this challenging phase caused by the pandemic. Social media gave rise to several types of issues accentuating terror and panic in several communities worldwide. This paper will analyse how social media platforms like Facebook have played a crucial part in causing mental and emotional distress to the Mauritian society during the covid-19 pandemic. Throughout the paper, we will see how individuals reacted to the outbreak of the virus and how they vented on social media platforms. We will also discuss the problems that fake news created in terms of confusion in people’s minds and how news outlets used this kind of news to generate revenue during the peak of the pandemic in Mauritius, and how influential countries monopolised news feeds on social media.

During the spread of covid-19, Mauritius was luckier than other countries inflicted by this plague. Nevertheless, that did not stop the spread of terror and panic within the Mauritian society. While the pandemic was already an issue to be worried about, social media helped create terror and panic about the virus. Other super countries like the UK and the USA were more inflicted and had more extreme experiences with the virus than Mauritius. Nevertheless, we still felt anxiety and panic as the social platforms, especially Facebook, since it is the most used social media platform in Mauritius, were flooded by their experiences and events related to the pandemic, as they are influential countries. These stories about their experiences with the covid-19 virus made Mauritians helpless and vulnerable much more than they were, as the covid situation in the country was controlled. Much fake news started to pop up on Facebook, misleading people about the fundamental nature of the virus. Journalism also used this to mislead and generate more revenue through these kinds of posts on social media, which facilitated access to terror. Facebook also gave rise to many ubiquitous groups present all over this platform, which created a sense of connectedness on social media (Chen & Xiaoge, 2021). On the other hand, with their negative posts and stories, these people greatly influenced Mauritians’ opinions and feelings, creating more negativity and anxiety toward covid-19.

Moreover, the extensive use of Facebook established an excellent platform for sharing information globally. Nevertheless, since the influential countries had a strong presence online, at a given point, some of us felt like we knew much more about these countries’ events than ours. While it makes perfect sense that these countries like the UK are economical and power-leading countries, it is worrying to see how small countries like Mauritius had nearly no presence in any news during the global pandemic. During the pandemic’s peak, the UK had one of the worst experiences with the virus (Fuchs, 2010). Being an influential country, Facebook was flooded with pictures, videos, stories, and posts about this. These countless posts of death counts and conspiracy theories on Facebook constantly reminded them how bad the situation could turn in Mauritius, scaring the Mauritians more rather than focusing on following the sanitary guidelines to prevent such problems. Social media’s primary purpose is to retain the user’s attention for him to spend more time using it (Chen & Xiaoge, 2021). To no surprise, this also helped push more posts about the virus to the top of the feed’s charts, ultimately antagonising the covid-19 virus to a horrifying level.

The virus was something that could be controlled had all guidelines been followed, but social media platforms like Facebook uplifted it to a cycle of fear. During the lockdown period and for some isolation periods, social media was the primary source of communication. Still, it created a global psychosis as covid-19 was the main subject of talk in a disastrous way. Since most social media sites and platforms work with the search algorithm, more and more post on the virus was being suggested to users. These posts confirmed their firm beliefs that the virus was like the final strike. These posts also accelerated the spread of terror because some were created in a very expert and confident way, erasing all doubts in the reader’s mind (Fuchs, 2010). This confirmation bias accentuates the reader’s belief in what he thinks he already knows, creating more confusion on the main topic.

Nowadays, with the advent of new technologies, social media has become a vital part of our daily lives. The covid-19 pandemic has accentuated this as we depend on social media for information and communication. Naturally, we also turned to social media to entertain us during the lockdown caused by the pandemic. Today access to social media is instant and approximately everywhere. Its impact on our lives is significant; we must consider that what was happening in other countries was felt worldwide and even came to the attention of small islands like Mauritius. Information on the virus was plastered all over Facebook, which stressed the world. However, it turned out to be worse for a small country like Mauritius, as people were scared to their bones, especially when the first few cases came and caused the first death. Mauritians were afraid to step out of their homes, and the continuous posts and different versions of the situation in the country enhanced the psychosis (Chen & Xiaoge, 2021). These individuals were constantly looking for more information on the virus outbreak, believing that the virus was something to be terrified of.

In addition, many social media platforms, such as Facebook, have a part of their activities dedicated to sharing news, which gives access to its users to the newest trending news. This option allows the users to engage in the comment section; especially Facebook will enable users to access info on pages they have not followed and engage on them while amassing these pieces of information they have not searched. Social media can grant them access to information that has not been explored; the press, in general, has taken this fact as an advantage to spread the news to a broader audience; this also allows the spread of fake news widely (Hampton, 2016). Fake news refers to misleading journalism created to confuse and grab the audience’s attention of the news outlet. With the extensive use of the internet today, the spreading of fake news has reached heights, especially during the pandemic, creating more damage. These online news outlets can post a catchy headline to grab the user’s attention; the articles that will follow these types of headlines are usually biased and relatively inaccurate, thus misleading their reader. Social media became the primary means of communication during the pandemic, primarily through apps like Facebook. Media companies saw this as a venture to make more profits from other people’s misery by using the fear and anxiety of the audience to generate more revenue. They began creating and promoting their fake articles. Since the users of Facebook could go through these articles from their usual platform, they automatically thought them to be accurate, leading to unnecessary panic in society during that difficult time.

Furthermore, the influence of social media also caused panic buying in the country; Mauritians were highly influenced by posts coming from the USA, seeing people bulk buying groceries and toilet papers. These posts created a sense of panic in Mauritians, having them buy more than they would usually; supermarkets were crowded with people hoarding groceries in their trolleys rushing to the cashiers. The panic was also created because Mauritius depended a lot on imports, and due to the pandemic, imports were lesser, causing a decrease in imported goods. However, the online posts hastened the anxiety in these individuals’ minds that they might face difficulties during the lockdown (Hampton, 2016). As Facebook is the most used platform in Mauritius, imagine how many stories and posts of panic buying we would see, and people started to feel helpless in some situations where supermarkets were nearly empty. The level of negativity that could be seen online during this period of panic buying was astonishing; it was scary to see people behaving like animals and even fighting over groceries. Even the local authorities had no power in controlling this situation, as any intervention from them was being filmed and posted online, receiving loads of harmful and harsh comments.

The situation escalated fast into psychosis as social media has been the triggering factor for many issues during the covid-19 pandemic. It allowed people to focus more on the news feeds that mixed real news, fake news, and people’s worst experiences. Some people were going extreme in their opinions and post, and due to the nature of their posts, they reached a broad audience, causing more havoc in people’s minds (Hampton, 2016). The proximity of being in touch with posts of these users profoundly influenced Mauritians on the situation in the country. The experiences felt by other individuals would not have reached such heights had it not been on social media platforms, as the people we follow on these platforms creates an online bonding that is maintained as we make use of social media every day, thus leading us to share the experience of others at a larger scale. This also played a role in discriminating the Mauritian Asian descendant, as posts on social media turned discriminatory against this community worldwide. The first outbreak came from China and influenced users worldwide to participate in and propagate this unethical act. Mauritian were also affected and were very condescending to Asian immigrants; at some point, authorities had to intervene to protect them in sensitive zones.

The situation in Mauritius also turned sour when one Facebook user posted the intervention of police officers handling a fight between two families during the lockdown period. The video caused havoc in the country, the reputation of the police force was tarnished, and in general, people started questioning their authority in the country. The problem was nothing concerning how they tackled the situation, but with the audience that perceived the police officers as violent and toxic, and since the whole Mauritian population was forced into a lockdown, all of them had the time and the frustration needed to vent it out on these police officers, which later targeted the whole police force. Here is an example of how social media can influence people to change their perspective on seeing things based on comments and taglines. This video had been shared countless times on Facebook for a whole month before the authorities took it down. This feeling of being helpless and anxious caused by the lockdown could be seen on Facebook, and we could see that it had a psychological impact on various individuals.

Another issue that caused panic in Mauritius was the different versions of sanitary guidelines and covid remedies present on the social media platform; some were from local news and others from foreign. In a situation where people are already confused and stressed out, as in 2020, when the outbreak started in Mauritius, we were all kind of ignorant on this matter and readily believed what was present online as sanitary guidelines or homemade remedies could cure an individual of the virus. This was alarming, as many people were following this online advice and were risking their lives and the lives of others (Hampton, 2016). Panic was also caused because many individuals were confused about the basic guidelines, and people were anxious about this. They wanted to be reassured because the pandemic was a dark phase where people lacked information on the virus at the beginning. This could be seen online in posts and comments where Mauritians expressed their feelings about this disappointing situation.

Influential countries certainly have a profound impact on Mauritians using social media. Still, we should note that the influence of communities within the society has also created a deep-rooted fear of the unknown during the pandemic. We have friends lists and followers’ lists; every time a user shares a post on his page, this will appear on the feed of his friend’s list and followers list. Imagine the reachability of the post; this is constant contact where a post or an image is being seen online without any other form of communication. On the other hand, we have pervasive awareness of all the information gathered without social media, like a high school friend with whom no contact has been kept for nearly a decade, but you still know he bought a new house.

 Social media is an extraordinary technological advancement, but any progress has its negative side. For social media, easy access to its features such as news and communication can quickly propagate unnecessary information and cause more harm to the greater public, especially if we consider the covid-19 situation, where it was easy to create panic, which could have led to anarchy if not controlled. Social media is also a powerful tool that can be used to perform various activities, but it also has the power to shape and change people’s perceptions of reality. These platforms allow people to use them as scapegoats, vent out their frustrations, change their identity for some time, and escape the reality they are living. The impact created by the influential countries caused much harm and mental distress, leading social media platforms to be flooded with their experiences, making the whole covid situation much worse than it was in Mauritius. Fake news speeded more on social media, enhancing the idea that the pandemic was like a doomsday event and causing confusion and panic within the society. Luckily, the situation surrounding covid-19 is easing up, and soon users will be able to ponder the fact that social media can negatively influence an individual’s perception and life.

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