in real life’ for the current

generation.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute

respiratory syndrome. It was first identified in December
2019 in Wuhan, China, and has since spread globally, resulting in an ongoing
pandemic. Common symptoms
include fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, and loss of smell and taste. While
the majority of cases result in mild symptoms, some
progress to an unusual form of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) likely
precipitated by cytokine storm, multi-organ failure, septic
shock, and blood clots. The time from exposure to onset of symptoms is typically
around five days but may range from two to fourteen days.
The virus is primarily spread between people during close contact, most often
via small droplets produced by coughing, sneezing, and
talking. The droplets usually fall to the ground or onto surfaces rather than
travelling through air over long distances.
Since then globally lockdowns have been announce by the governments of different
countries to prevent the spread of disease further and
urged people to practice social distancing. Now that people were stuck at home the
internet consumption begin to increase.

Millennials throughout the world started using more of the Internet and Cell phones
to collect data and information and communicate with
each other. This facility to communicate with others is the distinctive feature of
social media which provides great methods for millennials
to create and direct their social environments. Millennials’ use of social media
occurs concurrently to their developing identity, physical
development, emerging sexuality and moral consciousness.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, social media usage has reportedly increased
significantly. Individuals, connecting with their communities and reading
news updates, refresh their feeds more often, and businesses turn to social media
hoping to stay afloat by shifting some of their sales online.
In this research we trying to map the usage of social media and the time spent by
the average teen on all the platforms. Before and after the pandemic.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Millennials and new media

Millennials grew up in an era of development, terrorism and the great recession.
They are a generation that is shaped by their times (Raines,
2002). The introduction of the Internet, mobile technology and social networking
sites occurred as Millennials were coming of age; therefore,
this group includes some of the earliest digital natives (Bennett, Maton, & Kervin,
2008).
 Because Millennials never had to adapt to new media, they are its most avid users
– 81 percent of Millennials are on Facebook (Pew
Research Center, 2014) and 59 percent are on Twitter (Bennett, 2014). Millennials
are also active users of Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat,
which have risen in popularity among this generation as they prefer more visual
content. A report by comScore indicates that the leading
social media apps among 18-34 year olds based on smart phone penetration are
Facebook (76 percent), Instagram 5 (43 percent), Snapchat
(33 percent), Twitter (24 percent), Pinterest (18 percent), Google+ (18 percent),
Vine (11 percent), and Tumblr (6 percent) (Lipsman, 2014).
Social networking sites have opened the door to millions of Millennials across the
globe to connect and interact with each other like never
before. Geraci and Nagy (2004) write that Millennials were born in an era that puts
them in “control of their media environment” and they
thrive in this hyper-connected, fragmented media landscape.

With the growth of smart phone use among Millennials, they are utilizing social
media between 20-21 hours every month (Nielsen, 2014).
While Millennials are adept at multitasking and are not committed to any single
social media platform, Facebook remains the dominant
network for this generation (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015;
Miller, 2013). Smith (2012) affirms that Millennials are
constantly online for networking, news and entertainment purposes.

Millennials essentially want to stay connected with others, keep abreast on current
affairs, and also amuse themselves or moderate boredom.
According to the Cassandra Report, where 3,044 Millennials were surveyed across
10 countries, 77 percent thought “it was important to be
informed about current affairs and news”, and 60 percent said they relied on the
social media platforms to be updated on the news (Dua,
2014). Social media is the local TV for Millennials and 57 percent report that they
obtain news from Facebook at least once a day (Mitchell,
Gottfried, & Matsa, 2015; American Press Institute, 2015). There are sizable
minorities of Millennials who report obtaining news from
Instagram (26 percent), Twitter (13 percent), Pinterest (10 percent), and Tumblr (7
percent) according to the American Press Institute (2015).
However, breaking news is more common on Twitter and 59 percent of users utilize
the platform to stay informed on news as it is happening
compared to just 31 percent of Facebook users (Barthel, Shearer, Gottfried, &
Mitchell, 2015).

For example, in April 2011, news first 6 broke of Osama bin Laden’s death on
Twitter, which prompted traditional media outlets to leap on
the story and determine if the news was credible (Bennett, 2011). Millennials are
constantly connected and crave over-stimulation in their
media choices so social media is the ideal platform for them as the timeline or
newsfeed is consistently updated with news stories and status
updates.
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Millennials’ social media use may also be attributed to key characteristics of this
generation. According to Tapscott (2009), norms that
define Millennials’ social media use include freedom, collaboration and
entertainment. With social media, Millennials have fr eedom of
expression and they can choose who can and cannot be a part of their social
network; Millennials can easily collaborate with friends and
acquaintances on social networking sites and come together to support a common
cause; and Millennials also seek high entertainment value
compared to previous generations (Tapscott, 2009).

2.2 Millennials grew up mastering the platform.

Millennials are the generation most likely to be early adopters of technology, so it’s
safe to assume that they would make up the majority of
a platform’s early users. This means that as social media evolves, more millennials
are evolving with them compared to other generations.

Unlike previous generations, millennials are more likely to have a social media
account and actively use it, which leads to more savvy usage
habits and integration with their daily lives.
But it might surprise you to learn that Gen X, not millennials, spend the most time
on social media.
Generation X (ages 35-49): almost 7 hours per week
Millennials: just over 6 hours per week

Millennials aren’t just present and active on social media, they’re evolving along
with various platforms over time. This can be attributed
to the fact that they’re getting older, rising privacy issues, or changing attitudes
towards social media in general. Whatever the case, 86%
of them say that they’ve changed how they use social media in some way
compared to the past.

2.3 Millennials are the leading generation.

Gen Z-ers also have a strong online presence, but they haven’t been around for as
long as millennials. They’re learning how to use social
media by taking cues from millennial users populating the internet. While Gen Z
might be the heir of social media, millennials are still the
ones sitting on the throne and calling the shots.
The nature of millennials being slightly older than Gen Z (larger population with
disposable incomes) means that they have more purchasing
power. Generally, more purchasing power leads to a stronger ability to shape
the market and drive the evolution of marketing
communications.
Millennials, when compared to their elder counterparts, are said to be highly
trusting of user-generated content, which is essentially what
social media is. They’re also happier than older generations to be actively
participating with and contributing to social media communities.
When it comes to marketing and influencing purchase decisions, this makes social
media a goldmine for brands to reach millennial audiences.

2.4 Pros of social media

Social media has become one of the best mediums for transfer of information and
knowledge in the world. It is usually the millennials that
use social media than any other demographic. Young people especially use the
medium to stay in connecting with their childhood friends
and also to get new friends. Like any other technological invention, social media has
its own part of advantages and disadvantages.

Social media offer adequate opportunities for learning and interactivity and the
teens use such tools in the classroom, they cover the
educational background. According to Francisco Brannan - Social media can assist
students to easily contact each other with respect to
projects and assignments. Teachers have many options to share useful links and
this benefit the student. And also it can be benefited by
Students, teachers, and parents on the same page with the help of social media.
Sites like Facebook help teachers to stay in contact with
parents and let them know about the development of their children.

Social media networks are intended for the purpose of common and shared
connections. Today’s Millennials are accessing Facebook,
YouTube, Twitter and even Instagram to connect and share with those around them.
One of the most exciting things about social media is
that users can interrelate and involve in each other merely through a Web
occurrence, probably never even meet in person. According to
Natalie Saaris - the biggest advantage of social media is its power to connect
persons. It has become a widespread way for family and friends
who live far away from one another (sometimes universally) to keep up with what is
going on in each other’s lives, without th e expensive
cost of long-distance calling.

2.5 Expert opinions

Market research firm Nielsen said social media volume saw a whopping 50X surge
between January and March in India in the wake of
Covid-19 pandemic.

A senior official of the firm noted that social media buzz picked up from 0.4 million
in January and 1.6 million in February to a staggering
20.3 million till March 24. The number reportedly spiked simultaneously as corona
virus cases jumped from just one in January to the over

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500 in March.

According to Nielsen, the total volume of Covid-19 related conversations

reached 22.3 million by March 24 in the country.

Social media buzz notably began buzzing mid-January with the initial news of the
outbreak of the novel corona virus in Wuhan district of
China. Pandemic updates followed by campaigns such as Karo Namaste, use of
hand sanitiser and masks, to Safe Hands Challenge were
also noted as triggers for social media uptick during the restricted living imposed
during early March.

In the face of crisis, social media usage has surged once more. A study of 25,000
consumers across 30 markets showed engagement
increasing 61% over normal usage rates. Messaging across Facebook, Instagram
and WhatsApp has increased 50% in countries hardest hit
by the virus. Twitter is seeing 23% more daily users than a year ago. When it
matters most, people (even #Delete Facebook diehards) are
turning to social media for updates and connection.

Businesses, as well, have found renewed value. We’ve seen a 15-20% increase in
posts from our 18 million users, as companies reach out
to customers and employees. Moreover, how they use social media is changing. Our
data shows marketing and ads have given way to direct
engagement — one-on-one interaction with other people.

Whether it’s the mayor of Newark tackling questions on Facebook Live, Trans Link
highlighting the heroism of essential workers, or Make
A Wish turning to Instagram to reach kids in need, businesses are prioritizing
connection over conversions. You see this at the individual
level, as well, as messages of support and solidarity overshadow selfies.
Admittedly, this is a unique moment. For people like me who live and breathe this
stuff, the confluence of people using social media for
good and networks rallying to support their efforts has been inspiring. Whether it
will last remains unclear. As the immediate health crisis
recedes, so too will the spotlight on social media and the urgency to get things
right. Already, the solidarity of early days is splintering. But
I’m hopeful this can mark a turning point in the reinvention of a transformative
technology.

Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield state that using online

communication has both negative and positive effects, because there
are harmful ways in which the internet could be used. They also state that
nowadays, schools are trying their best to control how students
use digital media on school grounds (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008). In
some schools, leaders believe that social media has a positive
impact on the development of the students’ education. In other schools, leaders
have banned the access of social network sites, because they
fear the students’ interaction on them, although, they know the positive impact
social media has on the students’ education (Ahn, 2010). Ahn
also states that the examples of the media platforms the younger generation use
are: YouTube, to share and stream videos, and Facebook, to
have a complete identity online, and a network of friends. Ahn says, researchers
look at the profiles of the social media users as part of the
process needed for the students to develop their identity (Ahn, 2010).

Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson believe that there are
negative impacts caused by social media, which include
accessing inappropriate content and not “understanding online privacy.” They also
sa y that, there is online harassment and cyberbullying,
which is mostly caused by risks of peer to peer engagement (O’Keeffe and Clarke-
Pearson, 2011).
Rideout, has interviewed teachers, to find out their opinions regarding the effect
entertainment media has on the students’ academic
performance; 71% of the teachers believe it has negatively impacted the students’
attention span; 58% of teachers believe that social media
has negatively impacted their writing skills, due to their regular use of slang
language and word abbreviations.

The rest of the teachers believed it impacted both their face-to-face communication
skills and their critical thinking skills (Rideout, 2012).
She quotes a middle school math teacher who said, “The instant rewards of
video games have made activities that require depth of
commitment much harder for the kids.” (Rideout, 2012, p. 8) Rideout adds that
the positive impact caused by the students’ use of the
entertainment media according to the teachers she interviewed is their reading
skills, it improved 46%, their math skills improved 54%, their
writing skills improved 39% and their science skills improved 51%. More of the
positive impacts caused by entertainment media in the
opinion of 63% of the teachers is their ability to look-up information and find it, and
another 34% of the teachers believe it improved their
skills in “multi-tasking effectively” (Rideout, 2012).
According to O’Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, in the American Academy of Pediatrics,
there are a couple of benefits to social media use. They
believe one of the most important benefits of social media is that it enhances how
an individual understands himself by engaging with others,
and becoming creative through blogging. This leads to better outcomes in their
individual school work. Another important benefit according
to O’Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, is the fact that using social media gives students
the opportunity to improve their learning, since they have
the chance to share knowledge with one another and conduct group projects more
efficiently (O’Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011).

Victor Lavy and Edith Sand’s research was conducted in a Tel Aviv School to
determine the effect of the types of friends on social media
platforms of middle-school students. They divided the types of friends into
categories. “Reciprocal friends” which are friends that have
something in common with each other, such as academics and interests. A second
group was the “non-reciprocal friends”, those who turned
down the “friendship offer” of another student. They found that students with
reciprocal friends in their class had a significant positive effect
on three of their test scores; Hebrew, Math and English. On the other hand, students
that had no common friends showed that there was a
negative effect on the same three test scores. This tells us that if students are in
contact with friends who share the same interests, goals and

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education on social media, then they are more likely to help each other in
performing well in their studies, due to motivation and other factors
(Lavy, 2012).

A new term regarding education has been introduced by Jeff Cain and Katherine
Chretien and this term is known as ‘inter professional
education’. It means that, instead of each individual learning on his/her own,
different individuals come together to share the piece of
knowledge they have with others. This leads to improved outcomes as they learn
from each other’s experiences. This was first introduced
amongst the health departments (Cain and Chretien, 2013). Therefore, there is an
opportunity to make use of it within the students. This can
be achieved by utilising social media to create study groups on Facebook,
Skype, Blogs or any medium that allows multi contact
conversations and allowing them to share their assignments, asking their peers
questions they don’t understand.

According to Napoleon Egedegbe, the result that different researchers and scholars
have reached regarding the impact of social media on the
academic performance of students is that there is no impact (Egedegbe, 2013). On
the other hand, Dr. Patient Rambe states that social media
gives different drawbacks and opportunities that distinctively enable and disable
possibilities of having face-to-face interaction, as it liberates
them from this obligation to the availability of everything online. He also adds that
Facebook as a learning environment has given the
opportunity to have multiple representations of students voices and has created an
“educative and aesthetic space.” Taking into consideration
the opposing side, Facebook’s learning environment has caused limitations of
individuals to realise their “self-interests” (Rambe, 2011).

Sanzhar Naizabekov concluded that social media causes procrastination as a result

of its distracting nature. It would take an individual who
uses social media much more time than it would take a focused individual to finish a
task. Through procrastination emerges the second
negative impact, which is lack of motivation, because using social media with
studying develops negative attitude towards their individual
work at school (Naizabekov, 2012).

The advanced and improved usage of social media platforms such as Facebook has
become a worldwide phenomenon for quite some time.
Though it all started has been a hobby for several computer literates individual has
changed to become a social norm and existence-style for
students around the world (Nicole, 2007). According to Nicole, (2007), students and
teenagers have especially recognized these social media
platforms to be able to contact their peers, share information, reinvent their
personas and showcase their social live. Facebook users often
experience poor academic performance.
While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching, it's impossible, at
this stage, to fully understand just how significant the
impact of coronavirus will be on how we live, how we interact, and how we engage
with businesses moving forward.
Some trends are immediate - increased panic buying in supermarkets, hand
sanitizer selling out, home gym equipment on the rise. But over
time, those short-term shifts evolve, and the trends that are now being established
could actually be longer-term, particularly among younger,
more impressionable demographic groups that are still developing key elements in
their approach to life.
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Source: Global Web Index

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc across the globe, people’s
time that would have otherwise been spent perusing malls
or going to live events, is now being spent on the sofa.
During this period of pandemic-induced social isolation, it’s no surprise that people
are consuming vast amounts of media. Today’s graphics
use data from a Global Web Index report to explore how people have increased their
media consumption as a result of the outbreak, and how
it differs across each generation.

2.5. 1 More Time to Kill

Global Web Index found that over 80% of consumers in the U.S. and UK say they
consume more content since the outbreak, with broadcast
TV and online videos (YouTube, TikTok) being the primary mediums across all
generations and genders. Unsurprisingly, 68% of consumers
are seeking out pandemic updates online over any other activity. Gen Zers
however, have other plans, as they are the only generation
more likely to be listening to music than searching for news.

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Overall, younger generations are more likely to entertain themselves by playing

games on their mobile or computer. Millennials also stand
out as the foodie generation, as they are the most likely to be searching for cooking
recipes or reading up on healthy eating.

2.5. 2 Leaning on a Pillar of Trust

Across the board, consumers view the World Health Organization (WHO) as the
most trusted source of information for any COVID-19
related updates.
This isn’t true everywhere on a regional basis, however. For example, while U.S.
consumers trust WHO the most, UK consumers view their
government as their most trusted news source overall.
2.5. 3 The Need for Pandemic Positivity
While staying abreast of pandemic updates is important, ultimately, a positive
mindset and the ability to switch off will help people cope
better day-to-day.
Therefore, it seems reasonable that people are more inclined to invest in new
subscription services since they have been in isolation, with
almost one-third of Gen Zers considering purchasing Netflix, followed by Disney+.

III. RESEARCH GAP

Social media is used in educational institutions in the form of video-based learning,

interactive learning, smartboards, or presentations to
further engage students and catch their attention. It prevents rote-learning and
allows