mcscapsule333

[mcscapsule333]

Zoom in the Classroom during the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2021 By: Matthew Pang

The International Journal of Technology in Education and Science state “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and during the middle of the spring 2020 semester, many universities were forced to move from face-to-face (FTF) in-classroom to remote instruction. Many institutions used Zoom as their delivery platform. The purpose of this study was to investigate students' attitudes towards the use of Zoom in remote learning, and their perceptions of its effects on their learning and engagement in comparison to FTF learning. Thirty-one university students participated in this study. Data were collected using a 5-point Likert-type survey. The results indicated that students had a negative attitude toward the use of Zoom and perceived it as having a negative effect on their learning experience and their motivation to learn. Students listed flexibility as a main advantage to using Zoom for learning.” The longer students are forced to learn through asynchronous class setting the more they tend to begin to create negative reactions to Zoom. One thing students seem to value is the “flexibility” of using zoom and as a student myself I also find it to be the main advantage of having online classes. It makes college easier to manage and gives me more time to do what I wish. Zoom is a great tool and was a great replacement but I just hope we don’t need to use it for much longer!

Covid-19 first began in March of 2020 and as of today March 2021 it is still a large problem the world is facing. During the year of Covid our society has had to adapt to less face to face meetings and had to find a new way to conduct them. This is when Zoom, a video communication company from San Jose, California. Began to rise and became a household tool that students all around America had begun to use to attend class and to create relationships with their teachers and other students. Zoom is a way that public schools and Universities could conduct classes as normally as they could given the circumstances. But due to so many Zoom interactions students and teachers begin to gain something called “Zoom fatigue” which comes from a lack of human interaction. This quote should help explain “Zoom fatigue occurs when we feel tired after overusing video conferencing. It is not, however, merely a matter of tired eyes, a stiff neck or an achy lower back. We can actually feel exhausted after spending too much time on these calls. The reason, says Dr. Brenda Wiederhold, a clinical psychologist, lies in the fact that communication over these programs isn’t in fact real-time. For educators and students specifically, so-called “synchronous” learning over a computer isn’t really all that synchronous. And brain science tells us why. ‘Our brains are used to picking up body language and other cues, not to mention increases of dopamine, that are experienced during face-to-face communication,” explains Wiederhold. “On a video call, something is off, and our subconscious brain is reacting to that. Communication isn’t in real time, even though we may think it is.’” (National education Association) Zoom interactions have been a great transition from class to online schooling but comes with a price as well. Zoom has not only affected students and their education but also their teachers. Some teachers explained how they value the real time reactions of their students and being able to read body language. 

sources

Serhan, Derar. "Transitioning from Face-to-Face to Remote Learning: Students' Attitudes and Perceptions of Using Zoom during COVID-19 Pandemic." International Journal of Technology in Education and Science 4.4 (2020): 335-342.

https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/how-zoom-fatigue-impacts-communication-students#:~:text=Zoom%20fatigue%20occurs%20when%20we,much%20time%20on%20these%20calls.

[mcscapsule333]

Covid-19 Through Facebook and Instagram By: Grady Seitz

Throughout one of the biggest pandemics in modern day history, COVID-19 has shaped the lives of people live and interact with society. Social media has been playing a major part of each person’s daily lives for over a decade now and some will even say they can’t live without it. When COVID-19 first started and began to spread, civilization became scared and listened to any protocol to reduce chances of catching it. Being safe and following all sorts of rules make the spread of this virus less which saves lives in the long run. More and more people stayed home and social distanced due to laws and mandates that were set in stone. Majority of society were no longer able to or feel safe to see their loved ones and friends, but thankfully for social media, people were still able to stay and contact with others. People acted fast to show how they were keeping safe and following laws on many different media platforms. Without social media, society would feel less engaged without the rest of society and become lonely with sadness and sorrow.

Instagram has been very popular for quite a few years now and seems like it keeps growing in popularity. During COVID-19, Instagram has been a place where many people can see what their friends and loves ones are doing to stay in touch. With people still being able to post about their daily lives, it makes a lot of friends and followers still feel like they have some normality back in their lives. Having regular users post activities and videos makes each day feel a bit more normal as so many people are unable to get out and do their own things. As COVID-19 has still been very relevant across the country and worldwide, many people post how they’re doing under quarantine and social distancing. There has been a huge wave of users who post pictures of themselves wearing masks and showing their social distance. One thing that has been big to help encourage users and people around the world to follow guidelines, is famous people posting pictures and videos that me.

Facebook has been the staple of social media for quite a number of years now as many people across the world share stories and their lives with others. Since the start of COVID-19, society has been able to stay in contact with others since seeing them in person was not a viable option. Safety guidelines made it for people not to feel comfortable venturing out of their residences, and Facebook encouraged people to follow the laws. Facebook also has a text messenger known as Messenger where many people will connect with friends and family similar to texting through their phones. Many people have flocked to Facebook to create homemade projects and activities to share with others to keep themselves entertained through such difficult times.

All types of social media have helped eminency during this pandemic to ensure society can still connect without friends and loved ones. These times have been very difficult on many people since without some sort of human connections, people feel lost and lonely. Since the start of COVID-19, there has been many people that have suffered with depression and feeling left out of their everyday lives which is very negative for their mental health. Without social media being relevant, I personally believe that life would be much more difficult through COVID-19. Social media for once I believe has been beneficial for many parts of society across the world.

Kelly Bergstrom (2021) Anti-social social gaming: community conflict in a Facebook game, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 38:1, 61- 74, DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2020.1863441

Treré, E., Natale, S., Keightley, E., & Punathambekar, A. (2020). The limits and boundaries of digital disconnection. Media, Culture & Society, 42(4), 605–609. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720922054

[mcscapsule333]

Using Social Media and Online Shopping is trending due to Covid-19 By: Dobin Jeon

The coronavirus Pandemic resulted in a global health crisis that impacted how people view their everyday lives and the world. Not only did the patterns of transmission and the rate of infection of the virus endanger people’s sense of security, but also the safety measures such as social distancing, which were adopted to curb the control spread of the virus, appeared to infringe on people’s normal routine. Many global celebrities and influencers took to social media to send messages about adhering to the Public health strategies to combat COVID-19. Additionally, different renowned organizations took to social media to promote adaptive responses to raise adherence and positive health attitudes to the preventative measures. Billions of people were free to publicly share their ideas in the COVID 19 on the different social media platforms. Last year, home quarantine and social distancing were trending because of their in-depth social media platforms usage. Until some months ago, many people had never heard of the term social distancing, which implies staying about 6 feet away from one another to lower the chances of infection. Currently, social media users, ranging from family and friends to governments and celebrities, are regularly requesting for sanitizing, washing hands, and social distancing. Wajahat Hussain writes, “Within this context of physical threat, social and physical distancing, the role of the different mass media channels and social media in lives on individual, social and societal levels cannot be underestimated.” It will present the evidence showing how social media has been trending more during the COVID -19 period.

For the last over 12 months, however, there has been a dramatic shift in people’s daily routine caused by movement restriction as a result of COVID-19, leading to remote working, novel approaches to digital communication, and the cancellation of various events. The new normal did not only alter when and how people use technology, but it also had an impact on the type of information that individuals are attracted toward. Mark Camilleri states, “The mobile devices have become a part of our daily lives. We use them while we are out and about.” For society to develop the live connection, it began to use apps like Google Hangouts, FaceTime, and Zoom to have a one-on-one conversation. Organizations have mimicked this strategy by adopting live feed features on their different social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to connect with their diverse audiences. Also, Mark Camilleri mentions, “they may utilize the digital platforms to communicate about their organizations’ activities, including corporate social responsibility practices and/or to engage with online users, in real time.” The live feeds usually have Q and A features making it easy to engage the audience. The changes have led to an increase in the popularity of different Apps, especially in cases where entertainment is provided as an interruption to social media users. Viktória Ali Taha argues “During the pandemic, interest in online shopping increased significantly.” In the last few months, people have turned to social media for shopping. In the current times, people are not only using social media to read news and share updates, but they also use the platforms to buy and sell products and services. Many people indicate that social media is the common platform through which they learn about organizations, brands, and different products. Social media presence and

reviews have influenced people's decisions to buy from a given brand. Viktória Ali Taha adds “According to a PwC survey, COVID-19 rapidly reshaped consumer behavior, in the sense that consumers are buying more essentials and taking advantage of shopping online.” Social media can convey a sense of unity by bringing together many users or a large audience. People have seen the pervasiveness and flexibility of the social media platforms to improve public adherence to the public health safety measures to combat the spread of the COVID 19. As Wajahat Hussain says “Social media can play positive role during the COVID-19 pandemic by promoting effective strategies for helping individuals in dealing with social and physical distancing and reducing stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and inequalities”. Social media has positively impacted the COVID 19 pandemic by promoting relevant approaches.

Hussain, W. (2020). Role of social media in covid-19 pandemic. The International Journal of Frontier Sciences, 4(2), 59-60. Camilleri, M. A. (2021). Strategic dialogic communication through digital media during COVID-19 crisis. In Strategic corporate communication in the digital age. Emerald Publishing Limited. Ali Taha, V., Pencarelli, T., Škerháková, V., Fedorko, R., & Košíková, M. (2021). The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability, 13(4), 1710.

[mcscapsule333]

Twitter trends: Calling Covid-19 “China Virus” By: Anya Sudarkina

2020 has opened up the door for everyday people to use social media as an outlet more than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly decreased social interaction, and craving that human interaction, many have turned to social media. In a sample of 550 users, there was a correlation between the burden of the pandemic and addictive use of social media (Brailovskaia, J., & Margraf, J). In other words, there are a lot more of us spending much more time on social media sites, possibly more than ever. We are spending immense time scrolling through Instagram, possibly retrieving news from Twitter, catching up on Facebook, and socializing on Tiktok. 

This increased use of social media can also lead to rapid spreads of misinformation and opinions, and one of these trends was referencing the Coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” on Twitter. After the March 16th , 2020 use of this term by the President, there were a total of 177,327 tweets that included the keywords “Chinese virus” or “China virus”, a huge rise in comparison to the 16,535 tweets that preceded this moment. This doesn’t even include the other keywords that could’ve been used to imply the same meaning. There was a ten-fold increase in these tweets at the state level (Budhwani, H., & Sun, R.). Another study found that there was already an 800% increase in the use of this terminology even by March 8th , 2020 (Darling- Hammond, S., Michaels, E. K., Allen, A. M., Chae, D. H., Thomas, M. D., Nguyen, T. T., . . . Johnson, R. C.). This boom lead to more and more people catching on and using the same verbiage. 

This social media trend is incredibly harmful and causes tremendous effects. The way trends can ‘go viral’ seemingly overnight is proof of how quickly information spreads, and unfortunately, these trends can be negative. As a result, there is economic distress and loss of investments, not to mention the stigmatization and discrimination that follows. As social media has become such a significant part of our lives, especially over the last year, it has grown to be a strong influence on opinions and behavior. On March 27th of 2020, the FBI actually generated a report that warned that hate crimes against Asian Americans are very likely to surge across the US (Windsor, M.). I would argue that the rise in hate crimes we are seeing today are very likely correlated. One study noted that there was a steady decline over the last 13 years leading up to this language in what they call the Implicit Americanness Bias. This bias is the sometimes subconscious belief that European Americans are somehow more ‘American’ than Asian Americans. This reversed following the trend of stigmatizing language. Experiencing discrimination has also been linked with negative mental and physical health (Darling- Hammond, S., Michaels, E. K., Allen, A. M., Chae, D. H., Thomas, M. D., Nguyen, T. T., . . . Johnson, R. C.). All of this proves the tremendous impact of a social media trend, especially in this case, where the trend happened alongside similar narratives from other media outlets.

References

Brailovskaia, J., & Margraf, J. (2021). The relationship between burden caused by CORONAVIRUS (Covid-19), addictive social media USE, sense of control and anxiety. Computers in Human Behavior, 119, 106720. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106720 Budhwani, H., & Sun, R. (2020). Creating COVID-19 stigma by referencing the novel Coronavirus as THE “chinese virus” on Twitter: Quantitative analysis of social media data. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(5). doi:10.2196/19301 Darling-Hammond, S., Michaels, E. K., Allen, A. M., Chae, D. H., Thomas, M. D., Nguyen, T. T., . . . Johnson, R. C. (2020). After “the China VIRUS” went Viral: Racially charged CORONAVIRUS coverage and trends in bias against Asian Americans. Health Education & Behavior, 47(6), 870-879. doi:10.1177/1090198120957949 Darling-Hammond, S., Michaels, E. K., Allen, A. M., Chae, D. H., Thomas, M. D., Nguyen, T. T., . . . Johnson, R. C. (2020). After “the China VIRUS” went Viral: Racially charged CORONAVIRUS coverage and trends in bias against Asian Americans. Health Education & Behavior, 47(6), 870-879. doi:10.1177/1090198120957949 Windsor, M. (n.d.). #Chinavirus study EXPLORES spread of covid-19 related stigma on Twitter - the reporter. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.uab.edu/reporter/research/discoveries-innovations/item/9111-chinavirus-study- explores-spread-of-covid-19-related-stigma-on-twitter

[mcscapsule333]

Covid-19 Trends on TikTok by Danielle Fields

Although social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, have majorly grown in popularity in recent years during the digital age, the covid-19 pandemic brought TikTok, a video-sharing platform in the vein of Vine and Musical.ly, to the limelight. One of the main effects the pandemic has had on life during 2020 and 2021 is that millions of people around the world had to comply with quarantine and social distancing procedures, meaning there was limited face to face contact and communication. TikTok, being a social media platform with a large focus on the creation and sharing of personal videos, therefore had a boom in popularity during this time. In addition to the platform itself becoming an instant hit with social media users, many different types of videos having to do with coping with the pandemic became viral. Some of these include videos in which outdoor locations are shown with pretty music being played in the background(https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYrJe8/, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYWuQk/, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYokym/), videos in which the only text shown are positive, reinforcing statements promising the viewer that they are okay and things will be better (https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYqtAy/, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYtWaF/, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYpHyA/), and videos focusing on both the humorous/serious and relatable aspects of the effects the pandemic has had on people’s professional and personal lives (https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYK5XM/, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSYVh8Q/, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeS2PsgF/). With each of these categories in mind, it is clear that TikTok’s trending videos within the past year have approached the topic of the covid-19 pandemic in ways involving escapism, positivity, and emotional validation.

Despite having so many elements related to coping with the pandemic packed in these viral videos, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Videos on TikTok are a minute long at the most, and the first couple seconds of a video must be compelling enough to catch the attention of the audience in order for them to stay and watch it in its entirety. For a TikTok video to be compelling, its content usually has to be open enough for the typical social media user to instantly relate to it. As Scott McCloud writes, “when you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face … you see it as the face of another. But when you enter the world of the cartoon … you see yourself”. McCloud argues this about photorealistic faces versus smiley face drawings, though the same goes for the way in which TikTok videos become hits: the less specific and more generalized, the more your audience will emphasize and relate with you. For each of the viral video categories listed above, each of them include content which is widely accessible and relatable to a large number of people dealing with the pandemic, so it would make sense that they have become popular in this respect. Building upon this foundation of immediate relatability in TikTok videos is the inclusion of an easily accessible comment section in which the audience may read and respond to others’ reactions to the video’s content. Danny Kaplan describes this as a “staged display between two or more actors in front of a third party” or, in other words “public intimacy”. It is not simply just the TikTok video content which creates a viral hit, but the way in which people interact with each other in relation to it. So, “while audience members may choose to remain passive lurkers as in a standard theater setting, the dynamics of public intimacy encourage some of them to react” (Kaplan). Put differently, when the audience is exposed to friendly discussion about a video they enjoy, they may feel more driven to voice their own thoughts about it with others, therefore giving more of their attention and energy to it and driving up its value, making it a contender to become viral. It is in this way that trending videos on TikTok, especially those relating to coping with the covid-19 pandemic, have become viral.

With this in mind, it is clear that although the pandemic has largely kept people apart physically, we are definitely not isolated online. When people come together on social media to share their thoughts and experiences and to listen and respond to others’, they are practicing online sociability, something very much needed for a TikTok video to trend. Ralph Schroeder describes this in greater detail, writing that “in social media, unless mutual attention is paid, there is no bond or shared emotional mood, which is a prerequisite for both off- and online sociability … social media must be regarded as authentic, as personal, in order to count as part of socializing.” This may be the reason so many people have turned towards TikTok during the pandemic: “we participate because it makes ourselves and our lives visible to others” and because “our identities are interconnected with the way our voices are valued” (Carah and Louw). Hence, trending and viral TikTok videos related to coping with the covid-19 pandemic gain their popular status because they allow TikTok users to express themselves and find emotional validation through online sociability from doing so.

Carah, Nicholas, and Eric Louw. Media & Society: Production, Content & Participation. Sage, 2015. 

Kaplan, Danny. “Public Intimacy in Social Media: The Mass Audience as a Third Party.” Media, Culture & Society, Feb. 2021, doi:10.1177/0163443721991087.

McCloud, Scott. “Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art.” Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Harper Perennial, 1993. 

Schroeder, Ralph. “The Globalization of On-Screen Sociability: Social Media and Tethered Togetherness.” International Journal of Communication (19328036), vol. 10, Jan. 2016, pp. 5626–5643. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cms&AN=127361853&site=ehost-live.