Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 19) — Netizens have been expressing empathy on social media platforms amid the coronavirus pandemic, while optimism has been on a down low, a research revealed.
University of the Philippines Vice President for Public Affairs Elena Pernia, together with a team of social scientists, psychologists, and other experts, has been working on a study to craft a COVID-19 communication plan.
According to the data they have gathered from late March to early April, people have been empathetic yet anxious as reflected by their social media posts.
“Empathy is generally on the rise, optimism is low. Anger as an emotion is obvious, but it is still lower than anxiety. There is a mix of emotions,” Pernia said in an online Webinar.
Through social mining, the team has studied at least 50 million social media posts from the end of January until the first week of June, which showed the mix of emotions being experienced by netizens.
“There is a volatile mindset regarding COVID. There are indications of shifting perceptions from the first wave to the second wave of data gathering,” Pernia added.
She said that people nowadays tend to run in extremes.
“One is you are so scared so you believe everything that is posted. The other one is you escape, then miss out on the correct information,” Pernia pointed out.
