Social Media and its Impact on Mental Health During Lockdown Period of Covid-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh

Abstract

During any pandemic, the cognitive response of people towards disease and to balance emotional sufferings and social distress is a vital challenge for a country. This study sheds light on the impact of the use of social media on mental health during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. The target populace is the respondents in the age group of 18-60 who are highly active on social media platforms in Bangladesh. The purposive sampling method is adopted to gather responses from respondents through survey questionnaires during the lockdown period (May-July 2021) to examine their mental health. In the end, 610 responses were obtained and later the impacts have been assessed on various aspects like gender, occupation, and usage of social media. Data collected through the study indicates that 80.7% use social media as a platform for social communication and age has a significant impact on mental health. Furthermore, 71.5% of respondents believe that social media has a positive impact during the lockdown period in Bangladesh while it is the perception of 36.9% of people that social media does not have a positive use to reduce tension during the lockdown. Besides that, 65.8% of respondents think that social media creates stress with the news related to COVID-19. In addition, 51.7% people express their view that taking regular exercise helps them to sustain mental peace during this pandemic. However, the study reveals that social media needs to respond more realistically and responsibly in time. Being a strong and popular mode of communication as well as information, the governmental body can come across to formulate accurate policies in order to eradicate the negative consequences of social media during this pandemic period. In addition, recommendations suggested in this paper might be fruitful to develop a healthy communication platform even after the epidemic session in Bangladesh. The role of mental health is crucial to fight against the COVID-19 virus. As social medial has become a part and parcel of our daily life, positive and motivational news and speeches can help the user to stay mentally strong at all times even during a pandemic situation.