The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media Usage in the Context of Uses and Gratification Approach

Year 2021, Issue: 37, 329 - 344, 30.06.2021

Yasemin Bilişli , Hatice Tuzcu

https://doi.org/10.17829/turcom.861836

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the whole world, threatened individuals physically, mentally and
socially, and considerably transformed their lifestyles in varying ways. Considering the spread of the
disease and affected age groups, the struggle with COVID-19 should not be limited to the medical
aspect but should also be addressed socially. The present study attempted to reveal how the usage
of social media has been modified during the pandemic by drawing attention to the aspects of the
COVID-19 pandemic that affected social life. The general aim of the study is to examine the purposes
and motivations of the individuals’ social media usage during the pandemic with reference to Uses and
Gratification approach. The research was carried out with 12 university graduate female participants
over the age of 50, who were determined by snowball sampling method. The findings obtained in this
study showed that the participants increased their usage of social media during the pandemic compared
to their previous engamenents with social media. Moreover, some of the participants increased their
usage of social media to reach news about COVID-19 faster, which pointed out their motivation to use
social media for obtaining accurate information. Finally, the most important change in the participants’
usage of social media was about their Twitter engagements. The results show that covid-19 has changed
social media usage and also points to the power of social media.

Keywords

Covid-19, Pandemic, Social media, Uses and Gratifications, Health Communication

Kullanımlar ve Doyumlar Yaklaşımı Bağlamında COVID-19 Pandemisinin Sosyal Medya Kullanımına Etkisi

Abstract

Tüm dünyayı etkisi altına alan COVID-19 salgını bireyleri fiziksel, ruhsal ve sosyal yönden tehdit altına
alırken, yaşam tarzlarını da büyük ölçüde etkilemiştir. Hastalığın yayılış şekli, görüldüğü yaş grupları
dikkate alındığında; konunun sadece tıbbi boyutla sınırla kalmayıp, sosyal yönden de ele alınması
gereken bir konu olduğunu gözler önüne sermektedir. Bu noktadan hareketle makalede, COVID-19
salgınının sosyal yaşamı etkileyen yanına dikkat çekilerek bu durumdan sosyal medya kullanımının ne
şekilde etkilendiği ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Çalışmanın genel amacı, pandemi sırasında bireylerin
sosyal medya kullanım amaçlarını ve motivasyonlarını “kullanımlar ve doyumlar yaklaşımı”ndan
hareketle incelemektir. Araştırma kartopu örnekleme yöntemi ile seçilen, üniversite mezunu 50 yaş
üzeri 12 kadın katılımcı ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu çalışmada elde edilen bulgular, katılımcıların salgın
sırasında sosyal medyayı salgın öncesi döneme göre daha fazla takip etmeye başladığını göstermiştir.
Katılımcıların bir kısmının COVID-19 ile ilgili haberlere daha hızlı ulaşabilmek için sosyal medya
kullanımını artırdıkları belirlenirken, büyük çoğunluğunun doğru bilgi almak için sosyal medyayı
kullandığı tespit edilmiştir. Katılımcıların, COVID-19 öncesi döneme göre sosyal medya kullanımındaki
en önemli değişikliğin ise Twitter kullanımında olduğu görülmüştür. Sonuçlar, COVID-19 salgınının
sosyal medyayı kullanma tercihlerini değiştirirken, sosyal medyanın etkin gücününe dikkat
çekmektedir.

Keywords

Salgın, Sosyal medya, Kullanımlar ve Doyumlar, Sağlık İletişimi, COVID-19

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