Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media (Essay Example)

Social media is a relatively new concept, with popular platforms beginning to spring up in the late 1990s and into the 2010s. Platforms such as Myspace and Tumblr paved the way for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These platforms have allowed celebrities, politicians, and everyday citizens alike to share content with individuals all across the globe. This has placed the power to share opinions and beliefs, as well as try to influence the opinions and beliefs of others, in the hands of everyone with access to a computer or cell phone and internet access. The COVID-19 pandemic, first noticed in December of 2019 in China, would lead to widespread shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, and travel bans in the United States and throughout the world beginning in March of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced many people to share their beliefs in the form of Facebook posts, tweets, and Instagram captions. Individuals have used rhetoric in these social media posts during the COVID-19 pandemic to attempt to influence the ideology of the modern world. 

Many individuals in positions of political power have used emotional appeals to cater to their specific audiences in order to influence people’s beliefs and opinions and gain support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Politicians have turned to social media to interact with citizens due to the fact that it gives them the ability to “take the pulse of society and assess the impact and popularity of their posts” (Enache et al. 77). Essentially, politicians get quick and accessible feedback on the things they post online in order to gauge the levels of support they are receiving from their communities. As most people following politicians on social media are already invested in politics in some way, these posts are often “tailored to inform, persuade and win over people who feel some degree of connection with, and involvement in social and political life” (Enache et al. 80). Politicians must gain the support of citizens in order to be successful in their careers and social media is a quick and easy way to make people feel as if they are personally connected to those in positions of power in their community or country. If people feel connected to their politicians, they are more likely to support their political decisions and vote to keep them in power during elections. During the COVID-19 pandemic, due to “the stay at home and social distancing orders required by the COVID-19 pandemic, people are likely more reliant on news media as a way to stay informed as the pandemic progresses” (Matthews et al. 2). Information has been more readily accessible online rather than in person as people have been required to keep their distance from others and stay in their homes whenever possible. This has caused an increase in politicians using “the appeal to unity and togetherness, in spirit if not in reality, [which] has been enhanced by the fact that, due to the imposed or required social distancing, people can no longer be together physically” (Enache et al. 81). Fear caused by the pandemic has caused a desire to unify with other people in order to solve this crisis and politicians have been seen to use this unification in order to connect with and rally support from the people following them on social media networks. While many politicians have used social media in order to gain support from their citizens, other individuals have turned to these platforms to incite widespread fear regarding vaccinations against COVID-19.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals have turned to social media to spread fear of vaccinations among their audiences. These individuals tend to use the rhetorical tactics of emotional appeals rather than logical ones. An extraordinary amount of information can be found relating to vaccines on social media with a simple search, and even though it has been proven that “anti-vaccination profiles and groups online have been shown to generate content that is based on personal experiences and opinions, whereas pro-vaccination groups and institutions have the tendency to quote experts and cite scientific literature when sharing their views online”, the topic is still polarizing with millions of people in support of each side (Germani et al. 2). Anti-vaccination groups are likely to use emotional appeals in order to spread fear among the individuals reading their content while pro-vaccination groups turn to scientific studies and experts in order to prove their points with factual information. While individuals may be swayed by facts and logic, emotional appeals tend to be stronger as it plants fear in people’s minds leading them to avoid vaccines against all rationality. While anti-vaccination media is fewer in numbers than pieces of pro-vaccination media, “a small fraction of users belonging to this group are producing the majority of the content, which is then shared by the community at large” (Germani et al. 2). A small amount of content is widely circulated, spreading fear to tremendous amounts of people and potentially reducing the likelihood of vaccination. In a study on vaccine acceptance, “Participants that only reported the usage of official websites were on average more willing to get vaccinated” (Bendau et al. 3). Using official sources of information rather than solely social media sites increased the likelihood of one’s willingness to get vaccinated, likely due to the fear being spread on social media platforms. Official sources are also more likely to contain references to scientific studies done by professionals rather than emotional appeals from personal stories, adding to their logical appeal. 

One individual who utilized rhetoric on social media throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic was previous United States President Donald Trump. A frequent user of social media, Trump published numerous tweets throughout his presidency and the global pandemic, many of which utilized various rhetorical appeals. One such tweet published during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic stated that “I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the “borders” from China - against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!” (@realDonaldTrump). In this tweet, Trump uses emotional appeal by referring to the number of lives that were saved by his actions throughout the pandemic, specifically the closing of the borders with China- a reference to a travel ban he passed at the beginning of the pandemic. He is also using his position as the United States President in order to gain credibility from his audience. Another appeal used in this tweet is placing the blame for COVID-19 on China, referring to it as the Chinese Virus rather than referencing it by its scientific name. This places blame on China and was used to incite fear and anger towards China rather than the United States and its government. Trump also attempts to discredit the so-called Fake News narrative by calling it disgraceful and false, although this fails to appeal to logic as no facts are actually provided to prove that it is untrue. In July of 2020, Trump tweeted that “We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!” (@realDonaldTrump). Trump is using emotional appeals in order to gain the support of the United States people, mainly by trying to form a connection with them as he is attempting to prove that he cares about the status of America just as much as they do. He is once again placing blame for the pandemic on China, referring to it as the Invisible China Virus in another emotional appeal to win over the support of the United States. 

Politicians and ordinary citizens alike have used rhetoric on social media platforms throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to influence the beliefs and opinions of their audiences. Politicians turned to social media to use emotional appeals to gain support for their policies in relation to the pandemic as well as to connect with the citizens of their communities. Ordinary citizens turned to platforms like Twitter to spread information about vaccinations, whether they were using emotional appears to induce fear towards getting vaccinated or using logical appeals to persuade individuals to get themselves and their children vaccinated. Previous United States President Donald Trump was known for using Twitter to spread his opinions on the pandemic, using emotional appeals to gain support for his policies and placing the blame for the pandemic as a whole on China as well as using emotional appeals again to connect with American citizens against the pandemic. While social media is a relatively new concept, it has given immense power to individuals to spread their opinions across the globe from their computers or cell phones from anywhere in the world. It has given people the power to connect with politicians as well as anyone else online and is likely to only increase in popularity in the future.