Frontiers in Psychology (Oct 2024)

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nostalgic social media use

  • Peng Xiang,
  • Lijuan Chen,
  • Fuming Xu,
  • Shasha Du,
  • Mingxuan Liu,
  • Yimeng Zhang,
  • Jiayu Tu,
  • Xiaoyuan Yin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1431184
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

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IntroductionDespite popular speculation that nostalgic social media use skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, this has yet to be formally investigated in the scientific literature.MethodsInterrupted time series analysis (ITSA) using a segmented regression model was performed to examine the changes in the weekly volume of searches for nostalgic songs on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), as a proxy for nostalgic social media use, before and after the lockdown of Wuhan (signaled the start of the pandemic on a national scale in China).ResultsAcross the study period (January 1, 2019–February 28, 2021), an immediate and significant increase in nostalgic social media use was observed when the pandemic initially started (95% CI = [47314.30, 154969.60], p < 0.001) compared with the pre-pandemic baseline.DiscussionThis study provides empirical evidence for the impact of the pandemic on nostalgic social media use. It also advances our understanding of the increased usage of social media during the pandemic. Additionally, as nostalgia has drawn increasing attention from media researchers, this study offers methodological insights into the quantification of nostalgia.

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