Covid 19 and the Role of Social Media
Transcriber: Nhung Nguyen
Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
Covid-19 is a man-made disease leaked
from the research facility in Wuhan.
5G networks started the covid-19 virus
through radiological waste spreading.
Drink bleach in order to
cure you of the covid-19 virus.
These are just some of the lies
that have been spread through social media
during the pandemic.
During the course of the pandemic,
I’ve come to realize two things.
The first is why on earth
did I have my grandma as a friend
of my social media apps as she is
the one that sent me these messages?
But secondly, and more importantly,
I realized how powerful
the role of social media is
and the fact that it is
an influential entity in its own right,
which is easily able to spread
information as rapidly as the virus itself
This is what led me to researching
the role of social media during the
pandemic from helpful to harmful,
from facts to fiction and from
advocating to alarming.
Throughout this talk
I’ll look at the rise of social media
Why we have become addicted?
and what this has meant for
us during the pandemic?
Especially as the most recent impact of
false news filtering through social media
has been the low uptake of vaccinations
in some communities.
Let’s start with the questions
of what is social media?
Why is it so big?
And what impact does it have on society?
Before people are to use letters, emails,
even texts to send information
from one place to another.
Pictures would be difficult to send
and videos even harder.
But certainly people were able to send
any message, pictures or video
to the whole world
in the blink of an eye.
Although we’re moving on to
the more interesting topics,
we have to jump back to in 1997,
when Andrew Wainwright made
the first recognizable social media site
Six Degrees.
it enabled users to upload a profile,
make friends with other users.
Jump forward a few years to the year 2003,
when MySpace,
one of the most popular social media
sites to date, was launched.
One year later, the world’s biggest social
media site to date was launched
and it was known by the name of Facebook.
After this, the list never stopped
as YouTube, Twitter,
Snapchat and Instagram came about.
Some people call the evolution of
social media a great blessing.
Others call it a curse.
But in the current climate,
the world isn’t just black and white.
There are many advantages and
disadvantages of social media.
Firstly, let’s get something straight.
Social media has connected people across
the world at the touch of a button.
I could be sat in my room.
I know exactly what’s happening
across the world right now.
Almost half of the world
now using social media.
According to an information
site known as Oberlo,
there are 3.78 billion social media users
in the year 2021
of 5% increase from a year ago.
This shows the year-on-year rise
of social media
and how news and information
can now spread
to across half of the world
instantaneously
without any interruption.
As of March 2020, 21% of the country
spent long on social media
than they ever did before.
Hopefully, it was used to spread
the guidance around Covid-19
as well as
what the impact was around the world.
Although this may seem like one
of the world’s most advanced
and flawless pieces of technology,
there are two words that come to this,
and these words are fake news.
Fake news is one of the
world’s strongest viruses today.
People think that fake news
is just some harmless fun
and doesn’t lead to any real impact.
However, in the first 3 months of 2020
at least 800 people around the world
may have died
due to coronavirus-related misinformation.
Also, according to the American Journal
of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,
around 5,800 people around the world
were admitted to hospital
as a result of drinking methanol
and alcohol-based cleaning products.
These products were wrongly thought
to be a cure for the viruses.
Death spread through social media.
Pain spread through social media,
and darkness spread through social media.
People being lied
through the means of social media.
And instead of it helping people,
it’s been used to misinform
and wreak havoc.
I’m calling for change.
I’m calling for justice.
Should the tech giants do more
to help put an end to misinformation
and filter fake news?
The world is changing.
So why aren’t we?
We need to act now.
If we don’t, we may become prisoners
within our own walls.
Thank you for listening.