Introduction

If COVID-19 never happened, would Musk “have become meme”? Can Tik Tok thank the pandemic for its explosive user engagement?  How did isolation effect how people interact with one another, and how we engage now? Would we see less phones at music concerts, or while riding the train? This article explores how social media behaved as a substitute for social interaction, and the after-effects of leaning on it while we had no other choice. First, it will explore how engagement with online platforms changed during this period, how the way people engaged with each other evolved to suit, and the outcome of such a radical shift in behavioural patterns. It will then go on to discuss the impact of widespread disinformation, and how this has shaped the face of worldwide politics. Finally, it will describe how this has affected the future generations, and what to expect moving forward.

How engagement with online platforms changed during this period, how the way people engaged with each other evolved to suit, and the outcome of such a radical shift in behavioural patterns.

During the pandemic, unsurprisingly, social media usage skyrocketed. As people were forced to find ways to replace one of the most basic of instincts, to socialize, we looked at our devices as the solution. Usage increased as much as 40% in young adults (Chemnad et. al, para. 8) and an increase in individuals aged 50-64 years old seeking new ways to speak to friends and loved ones, though coupled with an increased sense of loneliness (Kuramoto et al., 2024). Online mechanisms for life had to grow to suit, video meeting platforms quickly replacing the office, freelance and gig work like Uber saw meteoric rises in their food delivery sector delivering profit for the first time since its conception in 2023 (Hoenig, H., Osoba, S., para. 6), and short-form dance videos took over the internet.  This radical shift in social interaction, and the isolation caused by the pandemic led to severe consequences on the general mental wellbeing of the public, with a 25% increase in anxiety and depression in the first year of the pandemic (World Health Organization, 2022).

For all human history, many tens of thousands of years, socializing has been a key component of our advancement and one of the primary reasons we were so successful, allowing us to create communities, and achieve more as a whole than we could in parts (Foley R,  & Gamble, C., 2009). How then, does a population of several billion people respond to rapid adoption of an entirely new way of life? Online forums, streaming services, and short form media services replaced work, school, and the market, with the ability to mute oneself in a meeting, create alias personas, or act like an entirely different person in virtual reality. Social norms were subverted by the ability to separate one’s identity from the consequences of their choices, engaging in topics and behaviours that may never have been considered in normal times. Socializing is fundamental to our development, allowing us to learn how to function in society, and how we fit into the world around us. Extreme isolation causes severe developmental issues in children (University of Minnesota, ch. 4.1), and can affect their social, cognitive, and emotional development.

Though some suggest that the pandemic allowed families to grow closer together, and for people to significantly expand their community through online platforms (Prothero A., 2024), there is a clear correlation between increased phone usage and anxiety and depression in individuals (Fernández-Pichel M., et. al., 2023) combined with higher reliance, and often addiction leading to lower levels of the happiness neurotransmitter; dopamine ( Burhan, R., & Morazadeh, J., 2020).

A stronger reliance on social media, coupled with a decrease in socialization attributes, and impacted physical and mental states have contributed to an inescapably overwhelming entrapment of the human social fabric. As we rely on social media more, we integrate ourselves deeper into the net, making it harder to claw our way out.

The impact of widespread disinformation, and how this has shaped the face of worldwide politics.

Although humanity was already facing one of its hardest challenges, the pandemic was used as an opportunity for many to spread disinformation, and gain influence both politically and financially. Creating content to be consumed by the masses became more accessible than ever, and instant sharing allowed this information to rapidly spread to an enormous number of viewers (Mazhar, B., et. al., 2024), with evidence that automated misinformation bots using deep machine learning algorithms were deployed to X (formerly Twitter) to sway opinions on topics such as health, policing and defence, and political elections (Ul Hussna, A., 2024). Some attribute the increased division and lack of trust in the political system to the spread of disinformation as they are now unable to discern what, if anything is true (Simon, J., 2024), and the significant increase in engagement in online communities lead to echo chambers of political and social opinions (Kelly, M., 2021) further inflated the polarization.

Influencers figure headed the opposition of the COVID-19 vaccine (Mavragani, A., 2024), suggesting that the prospective negative health effects associated with it outweighed the benefit it provided, some with the stance that it may have contained microchips, or even alter out DNA. Though the long-term effects of the vaccine are unconfirmed, the short-term human and economic benefit is clearly indicated, allowing society to bounce back after such a significant, and potentially worse outcome (Yang. J., et. al., 2022).

The aftershock of the cumulative disinformation, and exposure to a wiser scope of individuals whose opinions could exist in a community vacuum, has come to the boiling point, and boiled over many times. The raid of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Trump influencing the 2020 election polling and his subsequent assassination attempts, and even the kicking off the protest culture in Australia are a few examples of how the political landscape has changed worldwide, and how politics has become not only a cultural division, but enflamed to the extent of parading the streets en masse regularly to feel as if ones opinion is being heard.

Politics still hasn’t recovered post-COVID, and it is unclear if it ever will, with Trump recently imposing tariffs on the rest of the world causing widespread condemnation internationally. In Australia, increasingly right-wing opinions are being sowed among the people, and new political parties and individuals like the Trumpet of Patriots have risen to popularity in response. There is no way to predict how this may turn out in the future, but it can be clearly seen that there is a direct correlation between social media and changes in the international political landscape.

How this has affected the future generations, and what to expect moving forward.

If asked in 2018, very few people may have predicted, or could have comprehended that humanity would spend up to 18 months confined to their homes while a disease ravaged the world, but it did in fact occur. Until then, households were never forced to imagine teaching their children from home, often while working, while trying to navigate life with such heavy restrictions, and the inability to reach out to their network for support. Life satisfaction in teens was measured to be lower than ever before (Kalenkoski, C.M., Wulff Pabilona, S., 2024), with a rise in altercations in the home, and a combination of criticism online and unreasonable beauty or achievement standards further influencing the disillusionment of the youth.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, with many benefits attributed to the time spent inside including promoting accessible health education though online mediums, and social media acting as a coping mechanism when confronted with such an upending event (Ramsey, N., Obeidallah, M., Abraham, A., 2023), but the costs far outweigh the benefits in this scenario, with teen suicide, eating disorders and social development issues all more prevalent in teens during and after. Some of the predicted after affects include increased dysfunction in families and social networks, the need to resocialize, and post-traumatic-stress-disorder (Wendt Viola. T., 2022).

How the pandemic has shaped the future leaders of the world is still yet to be seen, but in the short term, the effects were significant, and will likely be embodied in many unknown, but likely negative ways in the future.

Summary

Though humankinds’ mettle was certainly tested during the pandemic, we found a solution, or maybe a band-aid, in online communities, and social media became the replacement for a construct of our evolution, social interaction. Strict isolation and exclusion from community networks caused a severe impact while we were locked inside, but it is still unclear how the future has been shaped by this time. The political landscape of the world, our ability to trust in media and our leaders, how the youth have been socialized, and how we interact post-lockdown are all outcomes of social media usage, and the platform owners and operators can be attributed responsibility in large part for how it has shaped our minds.

Leadership was tested, and it hasn’t bounced back today, but leadership is what is required to moderate the long-term effects of isolation. With more stable, less divisive, and more considerate leadership, people’s faith in the political system, and sense of support from elected leaders can help to mediate increasing fears of the future. This is not enough, though, and recognition and support are the best measures. Though social media helped us while we needed it, what we need now is real community, one where people put down their phones, and look one another in the eye, so that we may reconnect with each other, and look out of the window on the train, rather than our devices.

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