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Abstract:

Even before the COVID-19 lockdown, online mental health communities were looked at wherein Generation Z from this community has had a close relationship with social media platforms as they are considered digital natives, who at their core are considered a more vulnerable generation compared to their predecessors. This paper focuses on the amplified addictive behaviour among Generation Z in the mental health community regarding social media in times of COVID-19 lockdown. Using various academic research methods, this paper investigates and assesses the formerly associated characteristics of Zoomers from the mental health community, particularly the amplification of these characteristics due to the lockdown situation, loneliness, reclusion, and social distancing measures. In a world still discovering the extent to which COVID-19 can affect many aspects of society, the increase in social media usage by young people during the COVID-19 epidemic is caused by a complex set of variables that represent a changing social, cultural, and technological environment. It has been important to try searching for answers with regard to specific age groups within specific communities and to address the issue with nuanced knowledge so as to try to provide support and interventions. Understanding these variables is critical for creating policies, programmes, and practises that successfully support and involve young people from the mental health community in the digital era while at the same time opening debates to help and better understand future generations.

Introduction:

The Corona Virus outbreak has affected the essence of civilisation, taking control over social and cultural agencies and ideologies; it has affected a fundamental part of human interaction and resulted in many societal traumas. Physical interactions have become synonymous with propagation and contamination, whereby the lack of physical touch has caused a vast majority of people to become mentally ill (Daly & Robinson, 2022). Declared a world pandemic on March 12, 2020, COVID-19 (Corona virus—SARS-CoV) caused 93% of the 130 countries surveyed around the world to halt critical mental health services (World Health Organisation, 2020). At that time, the solution to restricting physical contact was to stay connected through online platforms, whereby social media platforms were viewed as the way to survive. This is where social media platforms started to make more sense than ever before. Since 2020, the lockdown situation has given rise to various online communities and given birth to many online mental health communities for members of Generation Z who need help dealing with psychological issues. Few are the researchers who point out the factors that stem from the Coronavirus lockdown regarding Gen Z in mental health communities, leading them to a predetermined addiction to social media platforms. This community can be broken down into youngsters, mainly Generation Z, who actively participate in mental health communities as a consequence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation accentuated by the lockdown situation and their predetermined characteristics associated with being digital natives. This generation of the online mental health community has been known for its shaking differences in terms of the consumption of digital content and the distinctive needs and expectations of social and cultural agencies (Deloitte, 2019). Referred to as “netizens”, Generation Z has been stigmatised as being more socially conscious, resulting in being more affected physically, mentally, and socially by social change, thus leading this community to be more fragmented and fragile (Cauberghe et al., 2021). As per the National Alliance on Mental Illness (2022), 1 in 5 young people have experienced mental health issues caused by the pandemic, with 18% of adolescents and 23% of young adults reporting an increase in mental health concerns during COVID-19 and turning themselves to online mental health communities to find support. This conference paper investigates the extent to which the COVID-19 outbreak has enforced a culture of dependency and addiction to social media platforms among Generation Z in the mental health community, taking into consideration the characteristics of this specific generation within the mental health community and the affordances of some social media sites.

Analysis

This paper has been motivated by the article “The COVID-19 social media infodemic” by Cinelli et al. (2020), which raised deeper questions and suggested a gap regarding the extent to which the lockdown situation has generated an addiction to social media platforms among different communities, in this case, the mental health community, by focusing on generation Z suffering from depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. When looking at mental health communities nowadays, they have been defined, as per Kopelovich et al. (2020), as a group of people who gather to talk about and help one another with issues relating to mental health. The mental health community focuses on the emotional, psychological, and social well-being of individuals, which may take place physically, virtually, or as a hybrid of the two. It is a sphere that allows people to discuss their experiences, emotions, and difficulties linked to mental health concerns in a safe and encouraging environment where people from Generation Z may feel alienated or stigmatised because of their mental health difficulties. Mental health communities provide a sense of belonging, empathy, and understanding, which, with the impact of the lockdown, have been given more support and have amplified online, as per Liu et al. (2020). It can be noted that due to the multiple benefits of mental health communities, they have moved online, which is not to displease the younger generation Z, who are considered technologically savvy. Various factors can be taken into consideration when looking at the addiction to social media platforms interlocked by the COVID-19 lockdown: the specific characteristics of Generation Z, especially those forming part of the mental health community; the structure of online mental health communities; and the affordances of the most popular social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

 

When investigating the addiction to social media platforms generated by the COVID lockdown among Generation Z within the mental health communities, specific characteristics of Zoomers regarding this particular community must also be looked at. It has been argued that this generation has been more complex and vulnerable, as per Persada et al. (2019). Grown-up entirely in the digital age with different needs from their previous generations, this generation has been associated with the concept of “netizen”, according to Vițelar (2019), who are digital natives who are comfortable with digital tools and platforms and expect a seamless digital experience in all aspects of their lives. In this case, the hypothesis is that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused a blurring of boundaries between social media life and real life as the social distancing measures and lockdowns have enforced and amplified the importance of having and developing an online self as a matter of survival and existence within communities, especially among those suffering from mental health illness. Being able to connect with their community and have a sense of belongingness, which is one of their basic needs as a result of a loss of control due to social reclusion, has been fulfilled within the online mental health communities and uplifted through social media platforms, which may explain the addiction to the social media platforms as it can be seen as a chain reaction as per Masaeli & Farhadi (2021) and Ozturk & Ayaz-Alkaya (2021).

 

The COVID-19 lockdown has democratised content flow on online platforms and encouraged the creation of different movements in times of lockdown, such as on TikTok called “Mental Wellbeing Matter,” whereby the latter partners with professionals to develop toolkits to help people learn about enhancing communication. Other social media platforms have been used as tools to disseminate information and connect patients together, mainly Instagram and Facebook communities. The lockdown situation has been a great roundabout in terms of activities done by the mental health community. For example, @7cups and @emotion therapy have been forced to shift from face-to-face meditation sessions, Zumba classes, and talks to operating online, which has consciously created a dependency from Generation Z within these mental health communities to consume online content to be relieved or just to know what to do in times of mental breakdown and panic attack, as stated by Pandya and Lodha (2021). According to Dolot (2018), the zoomer’s attachment to knowledge, their commitment to authenticity and mental health, and their individualistic behaviour have been enforced and freely addressed on social media platforms and when looking at Gen Z, it can be debated that they take full grasp of online support and validation within the mental health community, wherein new ideologies and perspectives are permitted, mediated, sustained, and understood as online freedom of expression (Aggarwal et al., 2020; Watson et al., 2020), for example, the deconstruction and common reflection around the importance of taking into consideration childhood traumas and ways of self-adapting and self-reconstructing in regard to these wounds. For instance, the way in which COVID-19 gave Zoomers time to review former life theories and deconstruct social hierarchy and ideologies, which are encouraged through social media platforms and within the mental health community as a way to grow, be better socialised, and heal, thus emphasising the ideal place to be, can directly lead to over-reliance and addiction to oneself online in regards to what is happening in real life, as also put forwards by Lisitsa et al. (2020).

 

There is something to understand regarding the relationship that some people from Generation Z within the mental health community have towards social media platforms: being already familiar with social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok versus becoming addicted to them due to a lack of physical interaction are two different things, whereby this familiarity has exponentially increased the tendency of people from this community to be subject to an addiction to social media platforms in a period such as the Corona Virus, as argued by Hudimova & Гудімова (2021) and Masaeli & Farhadi (2021). Despite some researchers argued that due to the expectation of Gen Z in regard to the seamless incorporation of digital tools and technologies in everyday life, here it is being pointed out that the COVID-19 lockdown has enforced the aspect of a platform society whereby the lockdown is viewed as facilitating and justifying an addiction to social media platform as it provides rooms to increase anonymity and provide a sense of freedom within the mental health community as stated by Suresh et al. (2021) as a result of a performing self, an amplification of online identity, a complete dedication to an online desired self, leading to a certain form of online representation, control, and elaborate a more complex and dynamic mediated self as forming part of a trendy community help people to find support and validation which is an important factor for healing among the generation Z as argued by Chancellor et al. (2021). Furthermore, it can also be mentioned that social media platforms may have contributed to addictive behaviours by employing persuading design techniques such as alerts and algorithms to keep users involved and returning for more, which at the same time generate views that generate money for some administrators of mental health communities due to the increase in views on platforms such as TikTok. These methods may be especially effective for younger users, who are more vulnerable to social influence and are still building impulse control and decision-making abilities (Jiang & Ngien, 2020).

 

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the concept of “living” was promoted online, encouraging a deconstruction of former spaces and concepts put in place by society and developed with regard to physical dynamics, thus unconsciously driving people to consume more social media content. During this period, social media platforms were considered the new hospital for mental health diseases, which may be a factor that argues that lockdown has a direct impact on the relationship that some zoomers have with social media platforms, as put forwards by Marcus et al. (2022) and Pregowska et al. (2021). Social media platforms, which were generally recognised as affecting socialisation and inferring misinformation and disinformation, have now become “the place to be” to find peace, entertainment, leisure, learning, sharing, communication, growth, bonding, work, and life, which in different contexts create cognitive dissonance and accentuate the addiction to social media platforms. These notions have been redefined and have overlapped to be representative of the physical reality, which created this concept of social media as being a double-edged sword that intensifies the internalised traumas in a period of lockdown whereby in the first place, these social media platforms have been argued to create an oppressive form of communication that results in questioning one’s own mental well-being and raising questions about a possible dissociation from the social media movement, as stated by Liu et al. (2021). By providing a space wherein the mental health community can help people deconstruct schemas internalised through the consumption of social media content produced and controlled by algorithms and their manipulations, it consequently results in an overuse of social media, which turns into dependency and addiction as a result of COVID (Alshare et al., 2022).

 

On the other hand, it can also be argued that the lockdown has also helped people to reevaluate their lives and priorities, whereby, at the other edge of the online mental health communities, Gen Z is able to cope with the COVID-19 lockdown and its prolonged effect in ways other than consuming online content and using online communities, as stated by Pouso et al. (2020). By setting a time to disconnect from online platforms and engage in physical activities such as gardening, journaling, cooking, DIY (do it yourself), and home decorations as a way to cut off from social media platforms and embrace loneliness, one can start the healing process.

Conclusion & Implications

This conference paper observes the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown, which has caused addictive behaviour towards social media platforms among Gen Z members of the mental health community. Different factors have been taken into consideration, and this addiction to social media platforms can be primarily considered a fulfilment of Gen Z’s basic characteristics regarding the shift in dynamics within online mental health communities. The social media affordances put in place to retain the attention of Gen Z and the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic are in addition to the ways in which different agencies in society have emphasised and uplifted the use of social media platforms as a way to resolve most problems caused by the lockdown situation, an argument that has also been mentioned by Alshare et al. (2022). As a result, a chain reaction has been demonstrated where the addiction to social media platforms has generated the COVID-19 lockdown in addition to the former characteristics associated with Generation Z within the mental health community, leading them to become more fragmented, vulnerable, and complex. The impact of COVID-19 is still a field that needs to be researched, studied, and debated, and more important is its impact on how people from various age groups communicate and interact within communities, which has been amplified online, in this case, within the mental health community. The COVID-19 pandemic is being propelled by a complicated collection of variables that represent a shifting social, cultural, and technical environment. Understanding these variables is critical for creating policies, programmes, and practises that successfully support and involve young people within the mental health community in the digital era (Ciotti et al., 2020). It is essential to note that not all young people from the mental health community acquire compulsive behaviours related to social media, but rather that social media addiction is a complicated problem affected by a variety of factors such as individual variations, social context, social media affordances and trends, and psychological factors. As a result, it is critical to address this problem with nuanced and evidence-based knowledge, as well as to encourage healthy social media use among different online communities through education, support, and targeted interventions as needed.

 

 

 

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