NEW ORLEANS — The presence and influence of social media during COVID-19 doesn’t have much comparison.
During the Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009, most social media outlets were just a few years old and the world did not go into lockdown. In this past year, many of us witnessed the arc of the current pandemic through our phones.
If you were on Twitter on January 21, 2020, what were you thinking when you saw CDC’s Tweet about the first American case of COVID?
Social media moved information during this pandemic, but it also moved some people further apart.
Online debates raged over the severity and even the reality of COVID. People questioned if masks made a difference. Then there was the politics surrounding the pandemic.
“It showed you the dirty underbelly of social media, how it can be so mean and so rotten, but then on the flip side it can also do a lot of good,” said Ashley Nelson, a communications professor at Tulane University.
Through social media, charities like the Chef’s Brigade connected metro area front line workers to meals while giving support to local restaurants. Facebook gave us a window on the work of nurses with tearful testimonials from the frontline. With more than 2 billion users, Facebook it also became the digital record of the final days for some COVID patients.
Katina Solomon used to work security for us at WWL-TV. Her last post at the beginning of January of this year was a photo from her hospital bed. She wrote, “I hope I shake back soon.”
Katina died on Jan. 25, leaving a void in her family.
“When it was vacation time, she’s always the person saying let’s go travel, let’s go to this place, let’s go that place. I don’t have that anymore. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a tough process,” Jackie Solomon said about the loss of her sister.
During this past year of social distancing, social media became a performance platform with virtual concerts and shows. The “house floats” that got national attention got their start with a local woman’s tweet in November of 2020. In Meagan Joy Boudreaux’s Tweet, she wrote, “It’s decided. We’re doing this.”
The house floats kept the Mardi Gras spirit alive during a season of no parades or parties. Professor Nelson says social media continues to evolve and expand.
“I did find a statistic that half-a-billion people that were not using social media have added this to their daily regimen,” Nelson said. “What’s also interesting is we’re seeing a huge shift in baby boomers, and they’re using social to connect.”
An older generation is now getting familiar with Tik Tok and Instagram. It may be an example of how the need to connect can also spread virally during a pandemic.
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