Purpose

This exploratory research aims to (1) investigate the bright and dark sides of social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) explore the impact of demographic factors on social media usage; and (3) assess the effects of cultural dimensions on social media usage.

Design/methodology/approach

The data are collected through an online survey. Factors derived from grounded theories and models such as affordance theory and Hofstede's cultural framework were considered. Spearman correlation and nonparametric analysis were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results revealed that social media usage was positively associated with healing and affiliation, and negatively associated with self-control. There are also positive associations between social media usage and sharing information related to COVID-19 without verification, perceived reliability of COVID-19 information on social media and relapse. The impact of demographic and cultural factors indicated significant effects of gender, age, marital status, educational level, power distance and collectivism on social media usage, sharing information, perceived information reliability, healing and affiliation.

Originality/value

This study contributes to technology affordances by examining social media's positive and negative affordances in a new context (COVID-19 pandemic). From the positive side, this study explores the use of social media for healing and affiliation. As for the negative impact of social media during the pandemic, this study assesses the user's addiction to social media use (relapse) and perception of the social media information reliability and information sharing without verification. It is among few research endeavors conducted in a non-Western country. This study also examines the influence of demographic and cultural factors on social media users. The results provide insights for both researchers and policymakers regarding social media usage.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间社交媒体使用的双刃剑：人口统计和文化分析

目的

这项探索性研究旨在 (1) 调查 COVID-19 大流行期间社交媒体使用的光明面和黑暗面；(2) 探讨人口因素对社交媒体使用的影响；(3) 评估文化维度对社交媒体使用的影响。

设计/方法/途径

数据是通过在线调查收集的。考虑了源自扎根理论和模型的因素，例如可供性理论和霍夫斯泰德的文化框架。Spearman 相关性和非参数分析用于检验假设。

发现

结果显示，社交媒体的使用与康复和归属感呈正相关，与自我控制呈负相关。社交媒体的使用与未经验证的 COVID-19 相关信息共享、社交媒体上 COVID-19 信息的感知可靠性和复发之间也存在正相关关系。人口和文化因素的影响表明性别、年龄、婚姻状况、教育水平、权力距离和集体主义对社交媒体使用、共享信息、感知信息可靠性、康复和归属感有显着影响。

原创性/价值

本研究通过检查社交媒体在新环境（COVID-19 大流行）中的正面和负面可供性，为技术可供性做出贡献。从积极的方面来看，这项研究探索了社交媒体在治疗和归属感方面的使用。至于大流行期间社交媒体的负面影响，本研究评估了用户对社交媒体使用的成瘾（复吸）以及对社交媒体信息可靠性和信息共享的感知，而无需验证。这是在非西方国家进行的少数研究活动之一。本研究还考察了人口和文化因素对社交媒体用户的影响。结果为研究人员和政策制定者提供了有关社交媒体使用的见解。