The mediating role of social media fatigue on social media usage behaviour of the ageing society during the COVID-19 pandemic

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, research on social media in the Malaysian context focused on its benefits and overlooked its drawbacks. To investigate this, we looked at an ageing society whose psychological health was severely affected during the pandemic. This study developed a model based on the Stressor-Strain-Outcome (SSO) framework that predicts factors that prompt passive social media use in Malaysia's ageing society during the COVID-19 pandemic. Convenient sampling was utilised to collect responses from 389 Malaysian older adults through an online survey. The direct effects of stressors, including information overload, communication overload, complexity, privacy, and fear of missing out on the strain of social media fatigue, and indirect effects on the outcome of passive social media use were investigated. For the assessment of the study model, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied. Out of 11 hypotheses, four direct and three indirect hypotheses were accepted. The study findings did not support the direct and indirect effects of privacy and fear of missing out on social media fatigue and passive social media use, respectively. Findings reveal complexity as the more significant factor influencing social media fatigue, and indirectly, contributing towards the passive use of social media. This study contributes to understanding how social media interaction affects an ageing society during the pandemic lockdown. Despite widespread interest in this field, research on ageing populations concerning social media effects and pandemics is still in its early stages in Malaysia. The study's conclusion offers a thorough examination of its limitations and provides valuable recommendations for future research endeavours. © SEARCH Journal 2023.

Rising Cybercrime on Social Media during Covid pandemic and its Impact on Digital Marketing

Covid pandemic brought a significant change in the way people learn, entertain, interact and conduct business. With people working and socializing remotely, social media usage skyrocketed and provided a fertile ground to cybercriminals to exploit the platforms and its users. This paper will explore the rising trend of cybercrime on social media, including specific types of cybercrime such as phishing scams, impersonation and misinformation. The paper will also discuss about the parties mostly affected by cybercrimes. Additionally, the paper will delve into the impact of increase in cybercrime on digital marketing, including the challenges faced by businesses. Overall the paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of cybercrime media during the covid pandemic and how it is impacting the overall society and digital markets all together.

Understanding the role of social media usage and health self-efficacy in the processing of COVID-19 rumors: A SOR perspective.

Apart from the direct health and behavioral influence of the COVID-19 pandemic itself, COVID-19 rumors as an infodemic enormously amplified public anxiety and cause serious outcomes. Although factors influencing such rumors propagation have been widely studied by previous studies, the role of spatial factors (e.g., proximity to the pandemic) on individuals' response regarding COVID-19 rumors remain largely unexplored. Accordingly, this study, drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, examined how proximity to the pandemic (stimulus) influences anxiety (organism), which in turn determines rumor beliefs and rumor outcomes (response). Further, the contingent role of social media usage and health self-efficacy were tested. The research model was tested using 1246 samples via an online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The results indicate that: (1)The proximity closer the public is to the pandemic, the higher their perceived anxiety; (2) Anxiety increases rumor beliefs, which is further positively associated rumor outcomes; (3) When the level of social media usage is high, the relationship between proximity to the pandemic and anxiety is strengthened; (4) When the level of health self-efficacy is high, the effect of anxiety on rumor beliefs is strengthened and the effect of rumor beliefs on rumor outcomes is also strengthened. This study provides a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of the propagation of COVID-19 rumors from a SOR perspective. Additionally, this paper is one of the first that proposes and empirically verifies the contingent role of social media usage and health self-efficacy on the SOR framework. The findings of study can assist the pandemic prevention department in to efficiently manage rumors with the aim of alleviating public anxiety and avoiding negative outcomes cause by rumors.

Social Media Use Purposes and Psychological Wellbeing in Times of Crises

This study investigates the effect of social media (SM) use purposes and user characteristics on individual psychological wellbeing (PWB) during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Informed by the uses and gratifications theory and PWB research, this study analyzed survey data collected from 282 SM users aged 18 through 59 from a minority-serving university in the United States in March-April 2020. Our quantitative data analysis showed that social media can be used to improve the quality of personal experiences during the COVID-19 crisis through three mechanisms-connectedness (i.e., social), engagement (i.e., collaborative), and entertainment (i.e., hedonic). However, the effect varied by gender, SM usage level, and individual concern about COVID-19 risk. The findings contribute to the literature and offer implications in technology use for enhancing public mental health during crises. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Opportunities Presented by COVID-19 for Healthcare Green Supply Chain Management and Sustainability Performance: The Moderating Effect of Social Media Usage

This research explores the opportunities presented by COVID-19 for green supply chains' environmental practices and ecological sustainability performances in the healthcare sector. This study investigates the connections between uncertainty-fear of COVID-19, healthcare green supply chain management (GSCM), and the three pillars of a firm's sustainability performance (environmental, economic, and social). Moreover, this study examines the moderating role of social media usage (SMU) on the effect of uncertainty-fear of COVID-19 on healthcare-GSCM. When conducting the empirical part, this study uses the partial least squares structural equation modeling method based on a sample of 483 healthcare managers. The findings prove that the uncertainty-fear of COVID-19 has a beneficial impact on healthcare-GSCM. Besides, SMU moderates the relationship between uncertainty-fear of COVID-19 and healthcare-GSCM, indicating the importance of SMU in gathering information for the healthcare sector during COVID-19. Likewise, when interacting with healthcare firms' sustainability performances, healthcare-GSCM positively impacts environmental and social performances, though it has a negligible impact on economic performance. This study adds to the “social cognitive theory”by introducing the concept of uncertainty-fear of COVID-19. Furthermore, this research adds to the “resource-based view theory”and the “knowledge-based view theory”by exploring the SMU's role during the outbreak. IEEE

Active and passive social media usage and depression among the elderly during COVID-19: does race matter?

Increasing depression and mental health problems among the elderly during the pandemic have become a grave concern. In the present study, we borrowed from the emotional contagion theory and examined the association between social media use (SMU) and depression among the elderly during the pandemic. Our findings suggest that active but not passive SMU is positively related to depression. Moreover, we also examined if SMU (both active and passive) has a varying effect on the mental health of the elderly based on their race, i.e. blacks and whites. Our findings suggest that active SMU is detrimental for both blacks and whites, whereas passive SMU is positively related to depression only among blacks. Further, we undertook multiperiod analyses where depression scores were measured at four different time periods. We found that the adverse impact of SMU on depression persists over time. The present study draws attention to the antecedents of depression among the elderly during COVID-19. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Social Media Devices' Influence on User Neck Pain during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Collaborating Vertebral-GLCM Extracted Features with a Decision Tree.

The prevalence of neck pain, a chronic musculoskeletal disease, has significantly increased due to the uncontrollable use of social media (SM) devices. The use of SM devices by younger generations increased enormously during the COVID-19 pandemic, being-in some cases-the only possibility for maintaining interpersonal, social, and friendship relationships. This study aimed to predict the occurrence of neck pain and its correlation with the intensive use of SM devices. It is based on nine quantitative parameters extracted from the retrospective X-ray images. The three parameters related to angle_1 (i.e., the angle between the global horizontal and the vector pointing from C7 vertebra to the occipito-cervical joint), angle_2 (i.e., the angle between the global horizontal and the vector pointing from C1 vertebra to the occipito-cervical joint), and the area between them were measured from the shape of the neck vertebrae, while the rest of the parameters were extracted from the images using the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). In addition, the users' ages and the duration of the SM usage (H.mean) were also considered. The decision tree (DT) machine-learning algorithm was employed to predict the abnormal cases (painful subjects) against the normal ones (no pain). The results showed that angle_1, area, and the image contrast significantly increased statistically with the time of SM-device usage, precisely in the range of 2 to 9 h. The DT showed a promising result demonstrated by classification accuracy and F1-scores of 94% and 0.95, respectively. Our findings confirmed that the objectively detected parameters, which elucidate the negative impacts of SM-device usage on neck pain, can be predicted by DT machine learning.

The Influence of Social Media Use on Social Connectedness Among University Students

The pandemic of Covid-19 has changed the lifestyle of people nowadays. Students has to adapt to the new norms in which they need to rely on the digital mediums to interact with others. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social media use and the connectedness among the university students in Malaysia during this pandemic of Covid-19. It also aims to investigate connection between the purposes of social media use (academic, socialization, entertainment and informativeness) and the level of social connectedness. Thirdly, the genders difference between social media use and social connectedness are investigated. The measurement used include the online social networking usage questionnaire and the social connectedness scale, and were distributed through snowball sampling method via the online platforms. A total of 300 respondents were recruited in this study with the mean age of 22.26. The results indicate that no significant relationship between social media usage and social connectedness. However, there was significant relationship between the purposes of using social media and social connectedness. Thirdly, no difference was found between females and males on the social media usage and social connectedness. Finally, this study highlights that the purpose of using social media could enhance the social relationship. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Predictors of the Public's Aversion to Patients Infected with COVID-19 in China: The Mediating Role of Negative Physiology.

COVID-19 has had a lasting impact on the public's mental health. Understanding the mechanism of the formation of the public's aversion to COVID-19-infected people can not only help eliminate the irrational stigma, rejection, and aversion of the public but also promote the creation of a harmonious and healthy social atmosphere. Based on stimulus-organism-response theory, this study explored the relationships between environmental stimuli, public negative physiology, and aversion responses. A cross-sectional, online-based survey study was conducted in April 2022. A total of 1863 effective questionnaires from respondents of various ages, genders, incomes, and education levels were acquired. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model. The environmental stimuli including the use of social media and the perception of risk communication aggravated the negative physiology of the public, while the public's perception of prevention measures reduced the public's negative physiology during the epidemic. The negative physiology of the public increases the public's aversion responses, including disgust, stigma, and avoidance, toward patients infected with COVID-19. The negative physiology of the public plays a mediating role in the relationship between the environmental stimuli and the public's aversion to patients infected with COVID-19. The emergence of excessive information in social media and strict prevention measures in daily life, as well as the dissemination of a large amount of risk information in pseudo-environments and realistic environments, have all exerted an impact on public sentiment and cognition. In the case of the prolonged spread of the epidemic, the accumulation of negative physiology, such as anxiety, panic, and depression, is more likely to lead to the public's aversion to people with COVID-19.

The impact and success of health-care-related social media usage – pre- and post-COVID analysis

Purpose The overall purpose of this empirically validated research paper is to determine factors that impact the success of using social media channels by consumers for salvaging health-care information by integrating constructs of the information system (IS) success model, e-health service quality and perceived usefulness during pre- and post-COVID settings. Design/methodology/approach Online survey responses of 243 consumers for study 1 and 184 consumers for study 2 were validated using factor analysis to understand consumers' attitudes toward social media use. Constructs from existing literature and theories have been extracted to develop the proposed model, which has been empirically validated through statistical tests. A paired-samples t-test was also conducted to compare the customer satisfaction mean of pre- and post-COVID conditions;and word of mouth (WOM) for pre- and post-COVID conditions. Findings The outcome of this study supports that service quality and information quality conclusively influence customer satisfaction of consumers for health-care information among respondents pre COVID, and service quality, perceived usefulness and information quality conclusively affect customer satisfaction of consumers for health-care information among respondents post COVID. Furthermore, the e-health service quality contributes noteworthy in shaping the consumers' satisfaction with social media usage for study 2 and information quality for study 1. A paired-samples t-test revealed that the two groups behaved significantly differently for customer satisfaction and WOM in the two groups. Research limitations/implications At prima facie, this study has a geographical limitation for the sample size. The respondents for the online research were from the urban suburb of Bengaluru, India. The data collection has not focused on any precise social media channel. Practical implications Identification and comprehension of constructs that influence consumer satisfaction related to social media usage for health-care information can assist health-care managers in developing appropriate strategies for consumers to maximize social media usage. Moreover, this study provides an insight into the consumer's perception of using social media channels for seeking health-care information. Originality/value This study recommends an empirically validated model for the success of social media in a consumer setting for the health-care scenario. This research is a unique attempt that inspects social media satisfaction by adapting constructs from existing theories of the IS success model, e-health service quality and perceived usefulness.

The mediating role of gender in social media shopping acceptance: from the WOM perspective.

Today, online consumers' shopping experiences are wholly transformed because of technology to maximize consumer shopping experiences. However, even after increased online shopping after the Covid-19 outbreak, no study has examined the role of demographics in online shopping acceptance. Thus, we filled this gap by employing a cross-sectional design in the UAE and conducting Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). For data gathering purposes, we used structured questionnaires and randomly selected a sample of n = 320 respondents from Al Ain city. Findings revealed strong relationships between Online Shopping, Social Media Usage, and Electronic Word of Mouth (p > 0.000, p > 0.000). Despite the relationships between Social Media Usage, Electronic Word of Mouth, and online shopping acceptance remaining insignificant (p < .384, p < .425), the relationship between Social Media Usage, Online Shopping Acceptance (p > .004) remained significant. Finally, we conducted the mediating analyses and found a substantial mediation of gender between Social Media Usage, Online Shopping Acceptance (p > .000), and Electronic Word of Mouth and Online Shopping Acceptance (p >. 001). Hence, we conclude that people from Al-Ain city primarily rely on online shopping. For this purpose, they consider different factors, including their demographics, i.e., gender, as highly influential on their online shopping acceptance. However, the major limitations of the current study involve selecting gender as the only mediating variable, rejection o two prominent hypotheses, and geographical generalizability of results. Finally, we recommend that future researchers examine the impact of other demographical variables, i.e., age, income, qualification, residence, and others, to examine their impacts on consumer online shopping acceptance.

Social media usage and its impact on users’ mental health: a longitudinal study and inputs to policymakers

Purpose>This paper aims to provide a systematic meta-analysis from the year 2000 up to 2021 by reviewing relevant studies in extant literature related to the impact of social media on mental health.Design/methodology/approach>This study adopts bibliometric methods and longitudinal statistical analysis to analyze extant literature. The structured literature review and meta-analysis findings on social media usage (SMU) and its impact on mental health indicate emerging research patterns in potentially leading to an integrative view.Findings>This paper highlights the importance of challenges regarding SMU and its impact on users’ mental health. This study shows interesting meta-analysis on the issues such as Facebook and teenagers’ mental health;Instagram and teenagers’ mental health;Twitter and teenagers’ mental health;and so on from the past 20 years.Research limitations/implications>This paper is a literature review on a critical social issue like SMU and its impact on users’ mental health. The meta-analysis is conducted only on the indexed paper and does not take the books, blogs and other kinds of literature in this domain. The analysis is carried out only for the research articles published from 2000 to 2021.Practical implications>Social media refers to any platform involving interactive digital technologies that encourage and facilitate users’ participation. SMU and its impact on users’ mental health can be attributed as contributing factors to the next global crisis. Studies suggest that increased SMU can potentially make users socially anxious. This study provides input to the policymakers, scholars and practitioners to understand the gravity of the situation and develop appropriate policy to overcome the challenges.Originality/value>The rapidly evolving nature of technology and social media calls for a careful examination of its risks despite the many benefits of e-participation and digital interaction. Although there is widespread acknowledgment of the problematic revelation that the pattern of SMU closely mirrors mainstream addictive behavior;yet, there are only a limited number of comparative studies available. This may be one of the few studies which highlight the issue of SMU and its impact on users’ mental health. Moreover, this study also adds to the body of literature.

Use of social media for COVID-19-related information and associated factors among health professionals in Northwest Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Social media has become an alternative platform for communication during medical crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess social media usage for COVID-19-related information among health professionals. Method: A quantitative cross-sectional study design was conducted among 370 health professionals. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 software. Data were collected using a semi-structured, self-administered, and pre-tested questionnaire. Descriptive and binary logistic regression analysis techniques were used to describe respondents' social media usage for COVID-19 information and identify its associated factors. Results: About 54% (95% CI: 48-58%) of the participants had good social media usage for COVID-19-related information. Age≤30 (AOR = 2.02, 95% CI: 1.14-3.58), Wi-Fi/broadband Internet access (AOR = 2.45, 95% CI: 1.38-4.33), taking computer training (AOR = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.37-4.85), basic computer skill (AOR = 3.28, 95% CI: 1.71-6.29), and usefulness of social media (AOR = 3.56, 95% CI: 1.57-8.04) were found to be the significant factors associated with usage of social media for COVID-19-related information. Conclusion: The present study confirms that more than half of health professionals had good social media usage for COVID-19-related information. This shows that social media platforms can be used as a source of COVID-19-related information for health professionals if basic computer training is offered, internet connection is available in the workplace, and the usefulness of social media is emphasized.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON YOUNGSTERS

COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus, and is transferable from one person to another through contact. The virus which usually affects the respiratory functions of a person, was first identified in China. The impact created by this pandemic is very severe. The COVID-19 disease and the related measures taken by the governments, like the lockdown, have created a significant impact on young people which need to be analysed and understood. The lockdown days brought about a number of changes in the normal life of the youth. The purpose of this research is to identify the impact of COVID-19 on college students in Kerala. Various studies on the subject have concluded that COVID-19 has affected the students’ family relationships, their use of the social media, their social behaviour, their skill development and academic activities. This study shows that COVID-19 led to a more positive family relationship than a negative one, although arguments and clashes of opinion in the family occurred more frequently. The use of the social media considerably increased during the pandemic. Students spent time on social media more for leisure than for academic purposes. Another important area of understanding relates to the beginning of negative behavioural changes in them. The study found that students became lazier, lethargic and sleepy during the lockdown. Their seriousness towards academic activities took a downward turn. On a positive note, it was found that COVID-19 and the lockdown made positive changes in the skill development of the youth. Cooking and gardening were two areas in which the youth improved their skills. The study concludes by asserting that COVID-19 and the lockdown made significant changes in the minds of the young people. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Social media marketing, shoppers' store love and loyalty

Purpose>This study investigates the impact of social media marketing activities (SMMA) on shoppers' store love and the impact of store love on store loyalty in grocery retail. Moreover, it explores the mediating and moderating role of store love and social media usage intensity (SMUI).Design/methodology/approach>A survey was conducted among grocery shoppers and social media users in Norway. A total of 177 valid responses were collected and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).Findings>The study discovered that SMMA impacts store love, and store love affects store loyalty. Store love serves as a mediator between SMMA and store loyalty. SMUI positively moderates the relationship between SMMA and store love;however, the relationship between store love and store loyalty is not moderated by SMUI.Research limitations/implications>Despite having limited generalizability from a cross-sectional study, this study provides literary additions to the body of knowledge in grocery retail and enhances the cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) and the attachment theory (AT).Practical implications>The findings of this study will help grocery shoppers, store managers and grocery chain marketers to comprehend the role of SMMA in building emotional attachment with a grocery store and help make better decisions.Originality/value>For the first time, this study incorporated SMUI as a moderator in the relationship between SMMA, store love and store loyalty in grocery retail. The study also proposes a new explanation for the relationship between SMMA and store loyalty by highlighting the mediating role of store love.

Active and passive social media usage and depression among the elderly during COVID-19: does race matter?

Increasing depression and mental health problems among the elderly during the pandemic have become a grave concern. In the present study, we borrowed from the emotional contagion theory and examined the association between social media use (SMU) and depression among the elderly during the pandemic. Our findings suggest that active but not passive SMU is positively related to depression. Moreover, we also examined if SMU (both active and passive) has a varying effect on the mental health of the elderly based on their race, i.e. blacks and whites. Our findings suggest that active SMU is detrimental for both blacks and whites, whereas passive SMU is positively related to depression only among blacks. Further, we undertook multiperiod analyses where depression scores were measured at four different time periods. We found that the adverse impact of SMU on depression persists over time. The present study draws attention to the antecedents of depression among the elderly during COVID-19. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Behaviour & Information Technology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Communication Apprehension and Psychological Well-Being of Students in Online Learning.

The current pandemic has modified how education, learning, and technology interact with one another inside universities. The usage of technology for instructional purposes raises the question of whether learning that happens in an online environment is as effective as traditional classroom models. Within this context, this study explores the psychological well-being of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, using an online cross-sectional survey. Data were collected from 246 university students currently studying at a private university in India. Hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modelling were used to study the mediating effects between communication apprehension, perceived learning, and psychological well-being under the moderating effects of intention to use social media and psychological stress. Results show that higher intentions to use social media alleviated the negative effects of communication apprehension on perceived learning. Interestingly, it was also found that perceived learning had a significant positive relationship with psychological well-being when students experienced higher levels of psychological stress (eustress). Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the transactional theory of stress and coping, we attempt to integrate the findings related to these theories, which can be considered distinct to previous studies. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research and practice have also been discussed.

Exploring food waste during the COVID-19 pandemic among Malaysian consumers: The effect of social media, neuroticism, and impulse buying on food waste.

The amount of food being thrown away despite being in an edible condition has become alarming in countries with populations with medium and high incomes. Changes in consumer behaviour, such as overbuying, are some of the major impetuses of food waste. This study aimed to examine the relationship between food waste and social media usage, neuroticism, and impulse buying. The mediating role of impulse buying and the moderating role of neuroticism on food waste during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic were also uncovered in this study. A self-administered online survey was distributed to a total of 274 consumers who had experienced a lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak and were also regular buyers of food. Empirical findings supported the fact that social media usage, neuroticism, and impulse buying were positively related to food waste. Impulse buying mediates the relationship between social media usage and food waste, as well as between neuroticism and food waste. The study results also revealed that neuroticism positively moderates the relationship between social media usage and food waste. This paper offers new insights into efforts for sustainable food consumption to tackle the issue of food waste.

Problematic Social Media Usage and Anxiety Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and the Moderating Role of Academic Burnout.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has greatly affected university students' studies and life. This study aimed to examine the possible mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of academic burnout in the relationship between problematic social media usage and anxiety among university students during COVID-19. A total of 3,123 undergraduates from universities in Shanghai participated in an online survey from March to April 2020. The results showed that problematic social media usage among university students predicted their levels of anxiety. Mediation analysis indicated that psychological capital mediated the relationship between problematic social media usage and anxiety. Furthermore, for university students whose academic performance had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of both problematic social media usage and the psychological capital on anxiety were moderated by academic burnout. For university students whose academic performance was not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, academic burnout moderated the effects of psychological capital but not the effects of problematic social media usage on anxiety. The results highlighted the underlying mechanisms in the relationship between problematic social media usage and anxiety. These findings provide practical insights into the development and implementation of psychological interventions when facing a pandemic.