Teens’ Social Media Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Time Series Examination of Posting and Emotion on Reddit
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Pandemic and Teens’ Psychological Wellbeing
1.2. Social Media Engagement during the Pandemic
1.3. Current Study
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Data
2.2. Measurement
2.3. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. How Is a Teen’s Participation in r/Teenagers Related to Significant Pandemic Events over Time, and What Is the Difference between Teens in r/Teenagers and Teens in Specialized Mental Health Subreddits?
3.2. How Are Teens’ Posting/Commenting Frequencies Related to Significant Pandemic Events over Time, and What Is the Difference between Teens in r/Teenagers and Teens in Specialized Mental Health Subreddits?
3.3. How Is Teens’ Emotion Expression Related to Significant Pandemic Events over Time, and What Is the Difference between Teens in r/Teenagers and Teens in Specialized Mental Health Subreddits?
3.4. Are There Differences in Posting Frequency and Emotion Expression on r/Teenagers between Teens Who Participated and Did Not Participate in Mental Health Subreddits?
4. Discussion
4.1. Subreddit Participation Patterns
4.2. Posting/Commenting Frequency Patterns
4.3. Emotion Expression Patterns
4.4. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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r/Teenagers post (0.1 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.65) Title: Kinda scared Body: I don’t normally post but I needed some way to vent. This isn’t me karma whoring because what does karma even do, no one may see this but I’m fine with that.//Recently I was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency, I’m not sure what it exactly means, but my parents say it’s good I’ve been diagnosed because they finally know why I’ve been short my entire life and that they can treat it. I’ve heard it’s rare but possible side effects could include something like blurry vision or possible chance of seizure later in life. I’m scared and I just hope I can get through this. Thx for reading. |
r/Depression comment (0.1 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.75) When you tell your father that you are suicidal have depression and severe anxiety and can’t go outside without overdosing on Atarax and he just complains “so what am I supposed to do call you ambulance?!” And I’ll probably be forced to get a job and have another mental breakdown because I can for a short time act normally therefore completing they tests so they think I can work just fine and have only 20% reduction in productivity even tho that I can’t leave home for longer than 5 min with medication.//Tried to get pension but got declined because they see nothing serious enough on me and have only 20% reduction in productivity and am only disadvantaged worker. Also don’t want to be locked up somewhere because I’m scared of it and would probably be forced to socialise with others and share room, showers, toilets all kinds of stuff, would rather kill myself than that. |
r/Anxiety post (0.1 0.4 0.2 0.4 0 0.62) Title: Being extroverted and having anxiety suck Body:At school I’m extremely social and have no problem speaking to new people and making friends, but when my close friends ask me to hang out, i get extremely anxious and feel nauseous while planning, while getting ready to go out, and for a while into the hangout//These moments of anxiety overwhelm me and make me feel like staying at home is much easier, which makes no sense because i hate being alone//I stopped asking people to hang out unless they ask me because of this and it honestly just sucks. |
r/SuicidWatch post (0 0.3 0 0.6 0 0.87) Body: Why can’t I be just stable and consistent, just for once? Just see myself as myself, not have constant mood swings, not being able to tell what is your indentity, personality, whatever? But like a chorus of my suicidal thoughts, there always is “but it will never happen”. And they’re right. All my nightmares have made me fear death. They affect me as if everything there happened irl. i love dreams, because they at least are a sweet desert from ghr bitter reality, but bad dreams affect me terriblt. now i look at what i just wrote and this all seems so badly written. oh well. |
Parameter | Weekly Mean Number of Posts/Comments | Weekly Emotion in Posts/Comments | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
b | Approx. SE | t Value | Approx. | b | Approx. SE | t Value | Approx. | |
Pr > |t| | Pr > |t| | |||||||
b0 | 4.948 | 0.039 | 125.520 | <0.0001 | 0.231 | 0.001 | 217.960 | <0.0001 |
b1 | −0.028 | 0.009 | −3.260 | 0.002 | −0.002 | 0.000 | −9.410 | <0.0001 |
b2 | 0.741 | 0.226 | 3.280 | 0.002 | 0.015 | 0.005 | 2.800 | 0.006 |
b3 | 0.032 | 0.015 | 2.210 | 0.030 | 0.002 | 0.000 | 5.990 | <0.0001 |
b4 | 4.884 | 0.127 | 38.330 | <0.0001 | 0.034 | 0.008 | 4.230 | <0.0001 |
b5 | −0.132 | 0.024 | −5.510 | <0.0001 | −0.001 | 0.002 | −0.530 | 0.598 |
b6 | 1.512 | 1.007 | 1.500 | 0.137 | 0.011 | 0.010 | 1.070 | 0.289 |
b7 | 0.114 | 0.032 | 3.600 | 0.001 | 0.000 | 0.002 | 0.280 | 0.780 |
R-square | 0.855 | 0.629 |
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Zhang, S.; Liu, M.; Li, Y.; Chung, J.E. Teens’ Social Media Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Time Series Examination of Posting and Emotion on Reddit. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 10079. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910079
Zhang S, Liu M, Li Y, Chung JE. Teens’ Social Media Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Time Series Examination of Posting and Emotion on Reddit. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(19):10079. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910079
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhang, Saijun, Meirong Liu, Yeefay Li, and Jae Eun Chung. 2021. "Teens’ Social Media Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Time Series Examination of Posting and Emotion on Reddit" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 19: 10079. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910079
APA StyleZhang, S., Liu, M., Li, Y., & Chung, J. E. (2021). Teens’ Social Media Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Time Series Examination of Posting and Emotion on Reddit. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(19), 10079. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910079