IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i9p5490-d807923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Media and the Pandemic: Consumption Habits of the Spanish Population before and during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Author

Listed:
  • Diego Gudiño

    (Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, Spain)

  • María Jesús Fernández-Sánchez

    (Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, Spain)

  • María Teresa Becerra-Traver

    (Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, Spain)

  • Susana Sánchez

    (Departamento de Psicología y Antropología, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, Spain)

Abstract

The confinement of the Spanish population due to the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a change in patterns of electronic device usage, leading to an increase in internet traffic. This study sought to evaluate the use of social media by the Spanish population before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. An extensive ad hoc questionnaire was prepared and distributed to a total of 397 people of different ages from different Spanish provinces. The questionnaire was previously validated and was found to be reliable. The results showed that during the lockdown, the most frequently used social networks were WhatsApp and Facebook, although others, such as Telegram and TikTok, also experienced a significant increase in user registrations. There was also an increase in the number of hours spent per week using social media, especially Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube, to share images, videos and audio messages, with a significant increase in document sharing and knowledge acquisition. The final section discusses some of the results and concludes by highlighting the importance of analyzing social behavior in times of crisis in order to design more effective and personalized communication strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Gudiño & María Jesús Fernández-Sánchez & María Teresa Becerra-Traver & Susana Sánchez, 2022. "Social Media and the Pandemic: Consumption Habits of the Spanish Population before and during the COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5490-:d:807923
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5490/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5490/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaya, Tugberk, 2020. "The changes in the effects of social media use of Cypriots due to COVID-19 pandemic," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Krystyna Mazurek-Lopacinska & Magdalena Sobocinska, 2022. "The Role of Social Media in Firms’ Marketing Communication in the Polish Market," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 216-234.
    2. Ismael Salamah Albursan & Mohammad Farhan Al. Qudah & Hafidha Sulaiman Al-Barashdi & Salaheldin Farah Bakhiet & Eqbal Darandari & Sumayyah S. Al-Asqah & Heba Ibraheem Hammad & Mohammed M. Al-Khadher &, 2022. "Smartphone Addiction among University Students in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prevalence, Relationship to Academic Procrastination, Quality of Life, Gender and Educational Stage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khan, Nawab Ali & Azhar, Mohd & Rahman, Mohd Nayyer & Akhtar, Mohd Junaid, 2022. "Scale development and validation for usage of social networking sites during COVID-19," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Farooq, Ali & Laato, Samuli & Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Isoaho, Jouni, 2021. "Understanding the impact of information sources on COVID-19 related preventive measures in Finland," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Ismael Salamah Albursan & Mohammad Farhan Al. Qudah & Hafidha Sulaiman Al-Barashdi & Salaheldin Farah Bakhiet & Eqbal Darandari & Sumayyah S. Al-Asqah & Heba Ibraheem Hammad & Mohammed M. Al-Khadher &, 2022. "Smartphone Addiction among University Students in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prevalence, Relationship to Academic Procrastination, Quality of Life, Gender and Educational Stage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Kim, Jihyun & Merrill Jr., Kelly & Collins, Chad & Yang, Hocheol, 2021. "Social TV viewing during the COVID-19 lockdown: The mediating role of social presence," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Arranz-López, Aldo & Soria-Lara, Julio A., 2022. "ICT use and spatial fragmentation of activity participation in post-COVID-19 urban societies," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    6. Belkıs Şahinoğlu & Neriman Saygılı & Ayşe Muhtaroğulları & Aysin Sinal, 2024. "Implications of media reports of crime for public trust and social support: a conceptual analysis of individuals’ psychological wellbeing," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Marinho, Marcelo & Amorim, Luís & Camara, Rafael & Oliveira, Brigitte Renata & Sobral, Marcos & Sampaio, Suzana, 2021. "Happier and further by going together: The importance of software team behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Sirola, Anu & Nuckols, Julia & Nyrhinen, Jussi & Wilska, Terhi-Anna, 2022. "The use of the Dark Web as a COVID-19 information source: A three-country study," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Tyagi, Aruna & Prasad, Anoop Kumar & Bhatia, Dinesh, 2021. "Effects of excessive use of mobile phone technology in India on human health during COVID-19 lockdown," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Chen, Ji & Huang, Jiayan & Su, Weihua & Štreimikienė, Dalia & Baležentis, Tomas, 2021. "The challenges of COVID-19 control policies for sustainable development of business: Evidence from service industries," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Santoveña-Casal, Sonia & Pérez, Ma Dolores Fernández, 2022. "Relevance of E-Participation in the state health campaign in Spain: #EstoNoEsUnJuego / #ThisIsNotAGame," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Muhammad Zaheer Asghar & Ayesha Iqbal & Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen & Elena Barbera, 2021. "Breaching Learners’ Social Distancing through Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-21, October.
    13. Yi Liu & Cong Liu, 2023. "Protective and Overprotective Behaviors against COVID-19 Outbreak: Media Impact and Mediating Roles of Institutional Trust and Anxiety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-15, January.
    14. Lozano-Blasco, Raquel & Quilez-Robres, Alberto & Delgado-Bujedo, Diego & Latorre-Martínez, Mª Pilar, 2021. "YouTube's growth in use among children 0–5 during COVID19: The Occidental European case," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Huan Liu & Qiang Chen & Richard Evans, 2022. "How Official Social Media Affected the Infodemic among Adults during the First Wave of COVID-19 in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-18, May.
    16. Bei Ju & Hai Min Dai & Todd L. Sandel, 2023. "Resilience and (Dis)empowerment: Use of Social Media Among Female Mainland Low-Skilled Workers in Macao During the COVID-19 Pandemic," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    17. Dariusz Zdonek & Karol Król, 2021. "The Impact of Sex and Personality Traits on Social Media Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-27, April.
    18. Camilleri, Mark Anthony & Kozak, Metin, 2022. "Interactive engagement through travel and tourism social media groups: A social facilitation theory perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Raj, Chahat & Meel, Priyanka, 2022. "People lie, actions Don't! Modeling infodemic proliferation predictors among social media users," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Lian, Ying & Dong, Xuefan, 2021. "Exploring social media usage in improving public perception on workplace violence against healthcare workers," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5490-:d:807923. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.