College student expression on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

Objective:The current study longitudinally examines college student Twitter patterns throughout initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to better understand psychological impact and online personal communication during the pandemic.Participants:A dataset consisting of ∼720,000 tweets posted by students from universities throughout the United States during the 2020 spring semester was analyzed according to structural and sentimental analysis.Methods:Using a data-driven approach, three time periods emerged which reflected the transition to online learning.Results:Significant changes in structure and sentiment of tweets were observed across phases.Conclusions:Changes in Twitter patterns revealed important features of this unprecedented transition to online learning for college students.