The Relationship between Social Media Panic of COVID-19 and Facebook Users’ Psychological State

(1)

92

The Relationship between Social Media Panic of COVID-19 and Facebook Users’ Psychological State

Suhaimee Saahar @ Saabar^1*, Nurul Atiqah Mohd Azlan^1*, Nurfatin Natasya Syatira Najib^1*, Nur Imanina Ayshah Suhaimi^1*

1 Centre for Media and Information Warfare Studies Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Accepted: 15 June 2021 | Published: 1 July 2021

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract: Data and news accounts on coronavirus infection (COVID-19) were easily spread and circulated through web-based networking media and person-to-person communication in the original, scarcely prolonged periods of 2020. Especially on social media where the usage of web-based social networking has increased rapidly during movement control order. Most of them started to post their activities during self-isolation, information on then pandemic and rumors to the other users which created social media panic among the other users. This event could lead to many risks in shaping how the public perceived the information during the movement control order. Travel restrictions is another paradigm, and on such figures that convey an enormous financial misfortune to the economy sector that can create panic and uncertainty among the society. When the pandemic started, social media user shared the information on COVID-19 blindly that could trigger the social media panic and affect their psychology state where they experienced sleep difficulties, panic and distress in managing the public risk perception during crisis. However, few months after the events, they started to prepare themselves with the information and awareness on the pandemic and changed their public risk perception and behavior to identify the social media panic during crisis, this study used the theory developed by Kasperson Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) in 1988, to amplify the public reaction and psychological symptom towards the pandemic and the relation to their social media panic. From this finding, it can be seen that there is a Relationship Between Social Media Panic of COVID- 19 And Facebook Users’ Psychological State.

Keywords: social media panic, psychology, COVID-19, misinformation, risk perception _________________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction

After the emergence of the pandemic, the COVID-19 outbreak began in China, a lot of news, information, conspiracy theories, and even misleading rumors have started to spread actively worldwide, especially through social media that has created panic, racism, and fear among the people around the world. The social media hoaxes started in early January 2020, where the footage of a woman eating bat soup in a restaurant in Wuhan has been speculated about the cause of the virus. Since then, a lot of social media users triggered by the idea of Chinese eating flying mammals link to the spreading of the virus in China. Somehow, a lot of people appear to believe what they read on social media and begin sharing the news to their family and friends as a warning that they were safe and warn that little they didn’t know, the more they shared the news, the more they could cause and build fear for the people who received it. According to

(2)

93

Wong (2020), as stated in the Daily Mail, social media content generated misinformation since viewers interpreted the video in a variety of ways, some of which were incorrect and others of which were correct. But with the elements and story involves, it created another view to the viewer and spread faster than the virus itself. From the fear-mongering story, it leads to the other audience’s racist perception towards the Asian people, especially the Chinese. Back in 2003, during the SARS outbreak, anxiety has shown when the people coped with the uncertainty of the epidemics by panic-buying the essential items in drug stores to prevent flu and prevent themselves from the symptom of the virus. This kind of situation is not something new in managing the epidemic.

According to Chua (2020), a lot of fake news and misinformation has been spread and cause anxiety and uncertainty among people, especially during the starting of the movement restriction order has created panic to the society where they assumed it was a total lockdown as in China and they started to travel back to their hometown and do panic buying for groceries as if the government didn’t allow them to buy their necessities during the movement restriction order (Nasarudin, 2020). Ultimately, they would also pass the information on to other people.

The viral text message that said, “hot weather and hot drinks can kill the coronavirus” and “the coronavirus can be transmitted through mosquito bites” contains some of the misinformation that will lead many people to believe it and spread the news as they are in uncertainty. (Lin, 2020). Nowadays with the advancement of technology and social media, the news on confirmed cases and movement control order spread faster on social media which trigger their uncertainties to do panic-buying. (Mckeever, 2020). Apart from the propagation of misinformation, social media has generated a new virus known as social media panic, which has spread faster than the Coronavirus itself, with bigotry, mistrust, and even conspiracy theories exploding among the general public all over the world. Many people are aware that the first COVID-19 case occurred in Wuhan, China a few months ago, with the public believing that the virus originated in China and that it could affect the entire Chinese society, instilling widespread racism against anyone with a Chinese appearance, Chinese tourists, and even Chinese goods. (Ren, Gao, & Chen, 2020).

Problem Statement

During the crisis, society depends heavily on digital media to keep them up-to-date with the updated information on the COVID-19 outbreak. Apart from being a platform for information dissemination, a lot of social media user has spent most of their free time to brought up their practical concern about government action in preventing the spread of the Coronavirus. The strategies include the Government’s campaign “Embracing New Norms” started on August 8th by Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to create awareness among the public to make the new norm as part of our lives despite being under the outbreak. Apart from that, since the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, the governments started the Movement Control Order by not allowing any movement between states and most of the people urged to work from home. (Harun, 2020) However, some of them may question the measures taken by the Government as they urge themselves to go to work during the movement restriction order instead of just staying at home. Such discussion on social media could just give a new impression in shaping the other social media user’s reactions towards government decisions in preventing the spreading of the Coronavirus.

Media reporting through social media plays an important role to shape the reaction and influence the audience on handling their best behavior through the movement restriction order.

All the information disseminated through social media will give an impact on society’s decision and thinking which could give benefit the other as well as create fear for them in fighting the

(3)

94

Coronavirus. This study will measure how social media could shape the audience’s perception and create panic among the user during the COVID-19 outbreak. During the movement restriction order, social media plays a significant role as a platform for information dissemination in the present digital era as the public could not get access to the traditional media such as newspaper, therefore they will rely mostly on the new media. Since the news of the Coronavirus spread, news sources have combined fearmongering, widespread bigotry, and the purchase of face masks, all of which are firmly linked to the new 21st century 'infomedia' environments branded by social media. The link between virality and virology is a noteworthy feature of this conflict: not only did the virus spread swiftly, but so did the public's understanding and bewilderment about the epidemic, and thus the terror it engendered. This issue needs to be entertained by the authorities in managing the risk of communication during information dissemination as it could influence the way the receiver to understand the news which it can impact the psychological state. Therefore, it is important to identify the psychological symptom of the user towards social media panic cause by the news they received.

When the positive cases in Malaysia maintain a single digit for the last few months, the public started to feel relieved and some even feel comfortable that the pandemic may be gone in anytime soon as they did not live to the new norm such as wearing the mask and maintaining social distancing. Not long after that, in early October 2020, the number of positive cases has started to rise to 3 digits after managed to maintain single-digit the months before which goes up to 4 digits’ number of positive cases in a day (Achariam, 2020). This has caused a rise in people’s panic and uncertainty towards the pandemic as the Government started to highlight a few areas as a red zone and implement a stricter Movement Control Order, which resulted in mild panic-buying after the cases did not show any sign of slowing down (Times, 2020).

However, after a few months of battling with the pandemic, the public started to figure out the way to manage the crisis using the Artificial Intelligence Theory by having self-awareness based on their personal experiences for the past few months. Because the social media user had not prepared themselves with adequate facts and understanding about COVID-19 previously, they were quickly panicked and frightened anytime they saw the COVID-19 posting link on social media. But now, they started to find out the correct information on the news received before sharing with other people on social media. It can be seen that the people started to accept the virus as part of their life as their anxiety has reduced and the Government feels that the way they behave towards the update on COVID-19 has improved from the past few months where they have gone through previous stages of lockdowns. (Thomas, 2020).

In Malaysia, many initiatives have been taken in managing the social media panic during the COVID-19 where the media give a timely update on the news and information for the public through news portal and their official social media account, yet a lot of social media user, share the news with a different perception to influence the other user and create misinformation. This could influence the social media user, especially the youngster aged 18 years old to 35 years old where most of them is social media user. Besides, this issue could give impact to the government and authorities in managing the risk of communication as the impact from social media panic to the social media user could impact their trust and perception towards the government’s effort in managing the crisis. Apart from that, the Government and authorities have taken many precaution step in managing the panic among the public by giving a regular update through social media, yet many people still create misinformation and spread the anxiety to the other people which give a very hard time to the front liners in fighting the pandemic at the same time to handle the public behaviors which will result on the extension of the movement restriction order. Therefore, it is important to determine the impact of social media panic on COVID-19 in shaping the Facebook’s user psychology state when dealing with

(4)

95

the crisis so that the authorities are able to control the misinformation and related posting on fake news to avoid panic among the societies.

There has been a lot of study done on the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) and conventional media news framing in amplification and crisis in risk perception in the last few decades, but much of it has concentrated on traditional media and not on new media.

Nowadays, digital media plays an important role especially in developing countries and has been expanding with the increase of internet users where they depend heavily on social media as a tool for information gathering, but not much research has been carried out in this context (Wirz, et al., 2018). Therefore, it is critical to conduct research into the relationship between COVID-19 social media panic and Facebook's user psychology state in order to determine the cause of social media panic in Facebook users, the psychological symptoms of Facebook users, and the effect of social media panic on the psychological state in order to reduce the risk of communication during a crisis.

Research Questions

These research questions had been identified from the problem statement in this research:

i. What is the psychological symptom of the social media panic to Facebook’s user?

ii. What is the cause of social media panic during the COVID-19 outbreak among the Facebook’s users?

iii. What is the impact of social media panic on COVID-19 in shaping the Facebook’s user psychology state when dealing with the crisis?

Research Objective

These research objectives had been identified from the problem statement in this research:

i. To identify the psychological symptom of the social media panic to Facebook’s users.

ii. To determine the cause of social media panic during the COVID-19 outbreak among Facebook’s users.

iii. To study the impact of social media panic on COVID-19 in shaping the Facebook’s user `psychology state when dealing with the crisis.

2. Literature Reviews

The broadcast of real - time information is a vital part of the global response in the case of a worldwide crisis, such as the pandemic. In order to achieve this, social media, or modes of electronic communication that promote the transmission and exchange of information, thoughts, photographs and videos, may be an especially suitable instrument. Previous disease analysis has found that social media has been successful in providing accurate content, regular information and valuable guidance to the public. In addition to having a presence on the forum, reputable organizations such as political authorities and major agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) depend on the forum as an important part of their engagement policy. During a crisis, the WHO knows how social media can become a tool to engage the public, increase friend interaction, raise knowledge of problems, track and respond to rumors, public reactions, and complaints, and promote local solutions. (WHO, 2017).

In addition to functioning as a source of information, social media has enabled the maintenance of social contact without the need for physical contact, despite the government mandates that encourage social distance and isolation. Physical space weighs in on the natural need to interact

(5)

96

with people, and social media appears to have played a role in the creation and preservation of morals. The extensive dissemination of photographs, recordings, and Facebook posts by those who remain at home has contributed in the formation of a sense of unity, the normalcy of acts, and the promotion of compliance. Public personalities, including some who were among the first to contract the disease, have spoken out about how their encounters have helped to educate and de-stigmatize sickness caused by the new coronavirus. (RTE, 2020).

Social Media Panic During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Social media networks have played a vital part in enabling easy contact with near and dear ones. Although these networks have been hailed for their enhanced ease of connecting, several incidents of customer data leakage have tarnished their trust. While unethical use of social media sites to spread disinformation is unethical, because communications on these medium are unmoderated, misinformation and false news are beyond their control; the resulting uncertainty unfairly jeopardizes their validity. Besides, it could trigger one perception when they received the spread of deception through social media on daily basis during the social distancing phase (Yagnik & Chandra, 2020). Communication activities on social media platforms have expanded rapidly and, in addition to its usual social networking role, it has expanded an avenue to raise awareness of COVID-19 to monitor the outbreak of panic and to disseminate information on measures to be taken to curb the spread. According to Yagnik &

Chandra (2020), people not only exchange knowledge through these channels, they also pass on their feelings, emotions, and fear to a wide number of people, consciously or otherwise, which is further compounded down the road.

The Covid-19 outbreak has also resulted in a considerable amount of incorrect information being spread on social media, as well as the potential danger that excessive exposure to reliable information can entail. According to UN News (2020), the WHO's response to the 'infodemic,' which is defined as an "overabundance of a few credible and some inaccurate data that makes it nearly impossible for individuals to locate trusted sources and appropriate recommendations when they need it," is delegated to social media teams and risk management coordination.

WHO will monitor and respond to misinformation and misinformation, refuting them with evidence-based information on social media and distributing accurate information. An investigation on the use of social media for speculative purposes during times of crisis. (Jones, Thompson, Schetter, & Silver, 2017). During the pandemic, it is also important to use appropriate phrases, not limited to the same phrase to disseminate the information and awareness. The term "Social Distancing" has been abused, misconstrued, and misused by social media users, reducing their capacity to share a common understanding of its meaning.

Disinformation and false news circulated by the newsmongers were not limited to COVID-19 on similar lines, but a sure success on the road to generating gaps between cultures, nations, and nations. Barsade (2020), demonstrated how this whole flood of data emerging from

"negative emotional contagion" (a change of moods between people) can produce ‘more infectious positive emotions". According to Brewer (2020), anxiety triggered by social conditioning creates a sense of panic where everybody has a rationale for the anxiety they feel from rumors. At the moment of the public health crisis, hoaxes and false news are focused on unverified evidence and knowledge that causes panic and anxiety among people.

Although fear allows one to be alert for potential incidents, to take necessary and effective action and to brace oneself for "fight and flight," from a term proposed by Hans Selye (1970), this does not provide an excuse to forget the law of not inducing fear in others through passing on negative individual thoughts across social media channels. In comparison, the unmoderated sharing feature available on these websites widened the possibility for scaremongers to spread

(6)

97

misinformation. As with other subjects, COVID-19 deception and hoaxes began to propagate through these mediums like wildfire throughout the planet. Any naive readers of these posts began to forward them to their network to spread the data without understanding the content's veracity. In addition to unreliable claims pertaining to conventional remedies, there were lots of misunderstandings and chaos created by misleading details on promising cases and death tolls spread through these mediums. The spread of false information regarding a caste or class's immunity to COVID-19, the effects of lockdown, the duration of relaxation during lockdown, and other topics has sparked a flurry of conjecture. In some countries, these attempts fooled migrant workers and provoked them to return to their hometowns without paying attention to the enforced lockdown. Some have queued up at grocery stores and flower shops, assuming that during the lockdown they would be stripped of necessities. (Dixit & Pandey, 2020) Social Media Panic and Psychological State

COVID-19 is a crisis event, described as a succession of one-of-a-kind and unexpected events that cause widespread fear and a sense of imminent danger. People expressed a significant level of fear and agony in the face of the outbreak due to the pandemic's quick spread, the increasing number of cases recorded and fatalities, the widespread absence of defense services, and the deterioration of medical resources. (Wang, Gao, Fei, & Qing, 2020). According to Lowrey (2004), there is an exceptionally strong demand for information and knowledge by people during a serious social disruption and the news media are typically considered to help fulfill these needs. The public, in particular, placed much too much reliance on the media for information on quantified public advice, organizational responses, and also an interchange of ideas with others. (Burnap, Williams, Sloan, & Rana, 2014). Confusion and uncontrolled emotions were substantially connected to anxiety and discomfort during the H1N1 epidemic, according to previous studies. As a result, individuals engage in routine information-gathering to avoid ambiguity in a crisis scenario from a variety of sources in order to alleviate their worried sensations.

On March 18, 2020, a nationwide "Movement Control Order" (MCO) was issued to combat the virus epidemic. In order to prevent the virus from spreading and limiting interaction with those who have been infected with COVID-19, sick people have been quarantined and social distance has been implemented. The MCO put an end to a lengthy period of social estrangement among Malaysians. The unusual regulations drastically altered social contacts and people's lifestyle, resulting in high levels of paranoia and the fear of catching an illness. While initiatives such as lockdowns, social distancing, self- isolation, virtual working and online classes for schools, colleges, and universities primarily reduced the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia, they had severe repercussions for the socio-psychological well-being and anxiety levels of society.

(Sundarasen, Chinna, Kamaludin, & Nurunnabi, 2020). Stress is described as an individual's personal contact with the environment that stresses or exceeds his or her resources, putting his or her well-being in jeopardy. According to previous research, stress is better utilized as an interpretive model between stressors and individual psychological reactions. (Brawman- Mintzer & Yonkers, 2004). Anxiety has gotten less attention as a subtype of psychological feature, despite the fact that it is just as common as depression and may be just as severe.

Uncertainty and concerns about harming oneself or others will exacerbate anxiety. On a global scale, anxiety is misdiagnosed and mistreated. Patients with anxiety may have physical symptoms such as weakness, fainting, discomfort or nausea, rapid breathing, shivering and so on, in addition to intense feelings of dread or panic. (Testa, Giannuzzi, Sollazzo, & Petrongolo, 2013).

(7)

98

One researcher stated in a recent discussion on the impacts of media that social media influenced panic purchasing in various countries since most people wanted to acquire toilet paper and other things on digital platforms due to the rising dread of COVID-19. (Hernandez, 2020). According to The Star, social media has played an important part in much of the hysteria around COVID-19, and it is now nearing a stage where social media sites are attempting to delete COVID-19-related information from their sites throughout the world. (The Star, 2020).

In addition, Devlin (2020) said that people saw posts on social media of empty shops and shelves, that formed panic related to food supply problems. According to Kent (2020), because social media allowed everyone to share data with others, they will immediately post about COVID-19 on social media. Furthermore, disseminating incorrect information about disease transmission on social media platforms has been shown to have a negative influence on public health and individual mental health. (Gold, 2020).

Digital media has been an important component of knowledge and a forum to share personal views, thoughts and questions concerning health, diseases and care. It was noticed that individuals spend too much time on digital platforms and could see incidents of impulse buying mostly during COVID-19 pandemic in different countries, which may help spread panic. It can be seen that these days, social media users are expert as they try to share their opinion and thoughts about COVID-19 to the other digital platform users. According to Garret, the pandemic itself give social media the ability to produce fear of COVID-19, when most of the social media user post panic- inducing data and it spreads thought (Garret, 2020). Researchers conclude that the global COVID- 19 pandemic has triggered market fear buying that makes them follow such a behavior. Contributing to the Covid-19 outbreak, buyers are worried about the production interruption and lack of medication. As in Malaysia, this situation leads to panic buying, leaving store shelves bare, after the Prime Minister placed a shutdown and movement regulation order to curb the rise in the spread of the disease coupled with a staggering spike in the number of new cases registered in the last few months. (New Straits Times, 2020).

Theoretical Framework

A recent COVID-19 incident demonstrated the need of managing not just the public's physical growth but also their social responses to the outbreak in order to combat the virus's spread. The management of hazard has evolved into the management of "problems" that the public faces as a result of the pandemic, as public uncertainties are considered less as a minor irritation and more as an authentic and significant component of the problem. (Leiss, 2001). To understand the concern of the public to the spread of disease, the model of public perception of risk has become as important as the model of physical hazard. In many events, physical development is usually linked with the perception of risk as this belief determines the effect of an alarming event on one behavior and reaction which will lead to their level of exposure to the crisis.

Currently, the public has received a lot of exposure to the COVID-19 crisis which they are no longer panic as they did during the early stage of the pandemic as they have been provided with a regular update and sufficient information on the crisis.

The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), established by Kasperson in 1988, is one of the theoretical frameworks that predicts and explains public risk perception. This framework explains that society usually undergoes social processes as they experience uncertainties or anxiety when they are facing an alarming event such as in a crisis. This resulted in unanticipated behaviours such as protest, panic, dramatization, and other public risk-related behaviors. This reaction not only resulted in the society but also to the legislator and the Government which can affect their decision-making process to manage the situation during a crisis. (Busby, 2013) In this research, the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) is

(8)

99

used to measure the understanding and public concern towards the steps taken in managing the crisis which focuses on their risk perception. It is important to understand the effect of the crisis on public behavior especially with the news that is easily spread in social media that may trigger social media users and cause anxiety among them. From the past pandemic such as Ebola and H1N1, it shows that the policies have succeeded in managing the crisis and slow down the infectious diseases to spread with the strategies such as lockdown and standard operation procedure in managing public hygiene and physical contact. (Linden, 2017).

Apart from that, the public needs to play their roles by having an accurate perception of the crisis and risk factors as their behavior can influence the other's people's uncertainty that spread together with the virus. According to Busby (2003), during a crisis, the social media user will receive a lot of different news and information regarding COVID-19 which resulted in different perception and argument came from them that will include disagreement, uncertainties, and believing towards the knowledge. Such cases where different people have different risk perceptions could be amplifying or attenuating a risk during the crisis and lead to a different reaction from the other people who get influenced by different information received by them.

This theory will be used to study the impact of the risk event on one's behavior in social and their uncertainties in managing the crisis.

Figure 1: Social Amplification of Risk Framework

The mechanism of amplification begins with either a real incident (such as physical event) or the diagnosis of adverse consequence (such as the discovery of vaccine). In both cases, people or societies pick and perceive particular elements of these events or aspects of the study results according to their experiences and mental processes. Such ideas are developed into a message and conveyed to other people and communities. Individuals or groups gathering and react to danger information, and act by adaptive outcomes or contact as ‘amplification stations'.

Individuals, organizations, or entities can be amplification stations. In their positions as private persons, and in their roles as workers or affiliates of social organizations and public institutions, amplification varies between people. In this study, the process will begin with the physical event which is the COVID-19 pandemic and the public will use social media platforms to gather the information related to the pandemic. From the announcement of the movement control order and rise of number of cases, the social media user started to post things that are related to COVID-19. The posting on the physical event may create panic and fear that may influence the behavior of the society’s when facing the hazard interchange.

(9)

100

3. Methodology

The purpose of this research is to find out how factors interact. The goal of this quantitative study is to see if there is a link between the dependent variable (social media panic) and the independent variable (Facebook Users' Psychological Symptom) since social media rumours and misinformation might create social media user disruptions and panic. Because the study is being conducted in the Petaling District region, and the total population of Petaling District, Selangor is 1,000,000 people, the sample size for this study should be 384 persons, according to Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) sample size and population table. Surveys are used to acquire data for this quantitative analysis. The researcher distributed an online questionnaire generated with Google Form in this investigation. Because the questionnaire will be distributed immediately through social media or another networking platform, it will be easier to distribute it to the targeted person. This will ensure that questionnaires are given to the appropriate samples, all of whom are active on social media. Apart from that, by avoiding face-to-face communication during the pandemic, the researcher and the participant will be safe. The data was analysed using SPSS software and presented in frequencies, averages, percentages tables, frequencies, descriptive statistics, charts, and other graphic formats in accordance with the research objectives.

4. Findings and Discussion

Table 1: Demographic Characteristics

Demographic Frequency Percentage

Gender

Female 241 62.4%

Male 145 37.6%

Race

Malay 314 81.3%

Chinese 26 6.7%

Indian 24 6.2%

Others 22 5.7%

Age

20 years old and below 55 14.2%

21 to 25 years old 160 41.5%

26 to 30 years old 74 19.2%

31 to 35 years old 43 11.1%

36 years old and above 54 14.0%

Occupation

Students 139 36.0%

Government Sector 47 12.2%

Private Sectors 150 38.9%

Self-employed 28 7.3%

Unemployed 22 5.7%

Accommodation

Staying with family 281 72.8%

Staying with friends 62 16.1%

Staying alone 39 10.1%

Staying in colleges 4 1.0%

(10)

101

Average time spend on social media

Less than one hour 15 3.9%

1 to 3 hours daily 135 35.0%

The questionnaire for this study were distributed across the digital platforms via Google Forms and it focuses to the respondent who live around Klang Valley and who do have a Facebook account. There are a total of 386 usable questionnaires and there is no missing data from samples. From this data collected, there are a total of 241 (62.4%) of female respondents and 145 (37.6%) from the total respondents are male respondents which shows that females respondents are higher compared to the male respondents. There are a total of 314 (81.3%) respondents who are Malay, 26 (6.7%) respondents who came from the Chinese background, 24 (6.2%) who is Indian and another 22 (5.7%) are the others races such as Kadazan, Bumiputera and others. This analysis shows that the highest races who answered this survey is from Malay followed by Chinese and Indian. It shows that the majority of the respondent from the data collected in Malay as many knows that majority of the population is Malay, therefore the majority of the data collected is from Malay respondents. The majority age group of respondents are from the age group 21 to 25 years old with 160 respondents (41.5%), followed by the age group of 20 years old and below with 55 respondents representing 14.2% of the study. The minority age group in this study is the respondents from age group 26 to 30 years old, 31 to 35 years old and 6 years old and above, with 74, 443 and 54 respondents, representing 19.2%, 11.1% and 14.0% respectively. This is because the survey was distributed across the digital platforms and focuses on the Facebook User, therefore the age group between 20 to 25 years old is the highest as this age group are the majority group who use social media.

On the occupation section, the majority of the respondents are working in a private sector with 150 respondents (38.9%) followed by respondents who is students with 139 respondents (36%).

The minority of the respondents coming from government sector, self-employed and unemployed with 47, 28 and 22 respondents with the percentage of 12.2%, 7.3% and 5.7%

respectively. From the analysis, it shows that the majority of the respondents, with 165 respondents (42.7%) spent their time with an average of 4 to 6 hours daily on social media.

Followed by those who spent 1 to 3 hours daily with a total of 135 respondents (35%) on social media and 71 respondents (18.4%) who spent between 7 to 12 hours per day on social media.

There are only 15 respondents (3.9%) who spend less than one hour on social media on a daily basis. This analysis shows that, most of the respondents spend between 1 to 6 hours daily on social media especially during the movement control order where everyone are asked to stay at home and carry out their work remotely from home. Therefore, they could use most of the time to use social media on a daily basis.

(11)

102

Pearson Correlation

Table 2: Result of two-tailed Pearson Correlation Correlations

Psychological symptom

Social media panic

Psychological state

D

Psychological symptom

Pearson Correlation

1 .383^**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 387 387

Social media panic

Pearson Correlation

.383^** 1 .410^**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000

N 387 387 387

Psychological state

D

DSFE FFE F

Pearson Correlation

.410^** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 387 387

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The psychological symptom of social media panic and the cause of social media panic during the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Pearson Correlation analysis table, were both present among Facebook users during the COVID-19 outbreak. There is a link between psychiatric symptom and social media fear at the sig 0.01 level using 2-tailed analysis. As a result, the alternative hypothesis is taken into consideration. SPSS analysis found a positive and acceptable correlation, so if one variable rises in value, the second will rise in value as well, and the two will correlate. The impact of social media panics on COVID-19 in shaping the psychology state of Facebook users when dealing with the crisis and the impact of social media panic on COVID-19 in shaping the psychology state of Facebook users when dealing with the crisis are related, with a correlation at sig 0.01 level with 2-tailed on the relationship between Social Media Panic and Facebook Users' Psychological state. As a result, the alternative hypothesis can be considered valid. Because the SPSS analysis found a positive correlation, if one variable rises in value, the second will rise in value as well, and the two will correlate.

The Relationship Between Psychological Symptom and Social Media Panic

The media had a particularly important role in influencing public perceptions of COVID-19 during this health crisis, as most people were confined at home to prevent the virus from spreading during the pandemic. As a result, individuals spend a lot of time watching the news and rely significantly on social media for information. Increased information connected to pandemic exposure correlates to a higher level of anxiety, according to prior study. When reading news such as the death of people infected by the disease and the announcement of the movement control order that was misinterpreted by the public, the respondents' psychological state can easily influence their public risk perception, such as the component of trust, ambiguity, personal impact, and trigger their social media panic. This psychological symptom contributes to their social media fear by causing people to panic purchase in order to conserve money for daily requirements during the crisis, as well as causing panic among other social media users by sharing pictures of empty shelves and other similar images. According to Garret, the pandemic gives social media the capacity to create dread of COVID-19 when the

(12)

103

majority of social media users submit panic-inducing data and it distributes thought that causes doubt to other people’s behavior due to worriedness on their necessities (Garret, 2020)

Apart from that, the psychology symptom such as awareness and confused, triggers the social media panic among the Facebook’s user by influence the way they could understand and follow the standard operation procedure implement by the government. With misinformation and different posting on the latest standard operation procedure shared across Facebook, it caused confusion among the Facebook’s user. When the saw the posting that some people could go to the supermarket, cross the state or others, they started to feel that it is okay for them to do it, despite the standard operation procedure implemented by the government. Some respondents do not have the trust in government steps in managing the crisis where most of them are confused and not aware on the up to date standard operation procedure during the event which caused them to disobey the rules. Confusion and uncontrolled emotions were substantially connected to anxiety and discomfort during the H1N1 epidemic, according to previous studies.

As a result, individuals engage in routine information-gathering to reduce confusion in a crisis scenario from a variety of sources in order to alleviate their worried sensations.

The Relationship between Social Media Panic and Facebook Users’ Psychological State COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a major public health issue globally. The disease has also impacted economies, employment, and policies alike, in addition to the growing number of cases and fatalities. As billions are separated to contain the virus in their homes, the confusion gives rise to the psychology effect such as anger, anxiety and panic on the information related with the crisis and high internet usage has intensified with even more media penetration in an effort to control the infection. As a result of the information distribution, Facebook users become disturbed after reading stories and circumstances on Facebook, which triggers their psychological condition.

The announcement of Movement Control Order has forced the society to undergo self- isolation at home which affected their psychology when they are unable to cope with the new normal of life such as going out, attending physical class and go to work like before. With the news on people getting terminate from their job, the news on a suicide attempt by the students who unable to cope with online class and the rise of family issue leads to social media panic and effect the Facebook’ user psychology as they are having sleeping difficulties and uncertainty when thinking about the information that they read. According to Kent (2020), social media provided everyone with the opportunity to share data with everyone else, which they choose to share their uncertainties across the digital platform that can cause social media panic. When the social media panic among Facebook’s user increase, the Psychological effect of the other might also get affected.

Furthermore, some people who are fired from their jobs or whose wedding is postponed owing to a movement restriction order can experience stress and resentment as a result of this event that keeps being postponed, since it has destroyed their plans. The posting shared on the experience of people who lost their family due to COVID-19, lost their job or shutting down of the business influence the other user’s uncertainty by thinking about their situation in the future due to the fluctuation in the number of daily cases that don’t shows any sign that it might gone anytime soon. However, most of the users currently aware on the news that they received and did not simply shared the news as they will find the reliable sources on the information such as on the latest update on the government’s SOP and update on daily cases.

(13)

104

Different information and news shared across the digital platforms especially by the netizens caused a high number of misinformation spread to the other social media users and trigger the panic among them. There a lot of different information and misinformation disseminate on the social media which then will be shared by others without knowing the source and credibility of the news. The majority of the news about the virus's cures and causes has led to a lot of confusion among readers. Apart from that, the news sparked fear on social media when users saw posts about an empty store shelf, a popular video about a police roadblock, and racial issues toward Asians, who were blamed for the virus by western countries. These posting trigger the user psychological symptom by having the trust issue, insecurity and uncertainty in managing the crisis which could affect their social media panic.

The announcement on Movement Control Order also cause panic attack to the public as most of them triggered as if they are unable to go out and get the daily essentials. Some of the posting shared on social media, affect their psychology symptom such as anxiety, sleeping difficulties, anger, stress and fear during the crisis. However, one noteworthy strength of the present analysis was that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia where the cases started to increase to 4 digits with the highest numbers of death and the implementation of the second MCO, the data for this study was obtained. Public responses to COVID-19 have therefore been reported more reliably than retrospective reporting. In general, it was observed that most respondents' anxiety levels were usual during the pandemic of COVID-19. While the data was gathered at the height of the outbreak of COVID-19, the majority of respondents identified low to medium potential threats. One potential reason for these results is that most persons were expected to be quarantined at home, which may reduce the expectations of danger and concern about contamination with COVID-19. Many respondents thought that they themselves grasped the COVID-19 reasonably well.

In general, previous study has shown that enhanced sensitivity to knowledge linked to pandemics contributes to a higher degree of anxiety and fear (Wheaton, Abramowitz, Berman,

& Fabricant, 2012). In this study, it can be seen that, the respondents are experiencing a low level of anxiety where the public risk perception does not really influence their psychological behavior as most of the spend most of their time doing research on the reliable source of COVID-19. Despite being worried on the number of cases that fluctuate, the respondents does not experience sleeping difficulties and anxious although they are stress on the government decision to extend the Movement Control Order. This is because, for the past few months since the crisis started, the respondents has started to have the self-awareness and able to cope with the new way of life during this crisis.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a correlation between psychological symptom and social media panic where most of the social media user highly depend on digital platforms such as Facebook to get a timely update on the current situation and news. There is a significant relationship between the respondent’s psychological state that can influence the social media panic from the posting that they read on Facebook. When a lot of news and posting related to COVID-19 shared across the digital platforms, it may trigger the social media panic to feel panic and anxious about the pandemic. However, with the increase of time spends on social media caused by the announcement of movement control order by the Prime Minister that allows the public to stay at home and work from home, users get to have more time to learn more and gather much information on the crisis. This could help them to decrease the media effect of social media panic which also can help to reduce their negative psychological state during the crisis.

Even though with the fluctuation number of daily cases, it can be seen that society are becoming

(14)

105

more aware on the current situation including the standard operating procedure and the right source of news that they received on social media. This has resulted in less panic and uncertainties on every announcement made by the government including the extension of movement control order. These findings might aid policymakers in reducing the unfavorable psychological characteristic among social media users as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic.

References

Achariam, T. (2020, October 24). The Edge Markets. Retrieved from Malaysia reports seven Covid-19-related deaths as daily new cases top 1,000 for first

time: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/malaysia-says-number-daily new-covid19-cases- tops-1000-today

Barsade, S. (2020, March 26). The contagion we can control. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2020/03/the-contagion-we-cancontrol

Brawman-Mintzer, O., & Yonkers, K. A. (2004). New trends in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

CNS Spectr, 19-27.

Breakwell, G. M., & Barnett, J. (2001). The impact of social amplification of risk on risk communication. Norwich: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Brewer, J. (2020, May 29). Anxiety is contagious. Here's how to contain it. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2020/03/anxiety-iscontagious-heres-how- to- contain-it

Burnap, P., Williams, M. L., Sloan, L., & Rana, O. H. (2014). Tweeting the terror: Modelling the social media reaction to the woolwich terrorist attack. Social Network Analysis and Mining. Busby, J. S. (2013). Managing the Social Amplification of Risk: A Simulation of Interacting Actors.

Journal of the Operational Research Society.

Collis, J., & Hussey, R. (2003). Business Research, a Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students. Second Edition. New York: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.

Devlin, H. (2020, March 6). The Guardian. Retrieved from Don't let coronavirus tip society

into panic, say psychologists:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/06/dont-let- coronavirus-tip-society- into-panic-say-psychologists

Dixit, P., & Pandey, S. (2020). Role of Social Media in the coverage of Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Garret, O. (2020, December 13). Retrieved from A Case of Modern Mass Hysteria? The Coronaviru: https://www.wktv.com/content/news/568519502.html

Gold, H. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from Inside the WHO's fight to stop false information

about coronavirus from spreading:

https://www.wktv.com/content/news/568519502.html

Graham, T., & Broersma, M. (2016). Social Networking and the Cultivation of Online Campaigning: A Comparative Study of Dutch Politicians’ Use of Twitter during the 2010 and 2012 General Election Campaigns. ECREA Political Communication Conference 2015: Changing political communication, changing Europe? Denmark.

Hamdan, M. A. (2020, March 21). The Edge Market. Retrieved from Businesses to record revenue losses of 40%-80% during MCO — EUMCCI survey:

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/businesses-record-revenue-losses-4080- during- mco-%E2%80%94-eumcci-survey

(15)

106

Harun, H. N. (2020, August 2020). New Straits Times. Retrieved from 4 strategies to stop Covid- 19 spread: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/08/616988/4- strategies-stop-covid- 19-spread

Hernandez, S. (2020, March 20). Kxan. Retrieved from Panic spreads fear especially on social media, local doctor says.: https://www.kxan.com/news/stop-hoarding-toilet-paper- says- local-psychologist-youre-spreading-fear-faster-than-covid-19/%7B;ast

Jones, N., Thompson, R., Schetter, D. C., & Silver, R. (2017, October 17). Distress and rumor exposure on social media during a campus lockdown. Retrieved from https://www.pnas.org/content/114/44/11663

Kasperson, R. E. (1988). The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework. Risk Analysis An International Journal.

Kent, S. (2020, March 8). NJ COm. Retrieved from Fear spreads like a virus: How coronavirus

panic is taking a toll on NJ's mental health:

https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/03/fear- spreads-just-like-a-virus-coronavirus- panic-is-taking-a-toll-on-njs-mental-health.html

Leiss, W. (2001). In the chamber of risks: Understanding risk controversies. McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal & Kingston.

Lim, I. (2020, August 5). Yahoo! News. Retrieved from Kedah’s Sivagangga cluster: What its emergence tells us about Malaysia’s Covid-19 fight:

https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/kedah-sivagangga-cluster-emergence-tells- 225800258.html

Lin, S. (2020, May 12). Science Media Centre Malaysia. Retrieved from [MEDIA RELEASE]

Social Media, Fake News and COVID-19:

https://sciencemediacentremalaysia.com/media- release/2020/05/media-release- social-media-fake-news-and-covid-19/

Linden, V. D. (2017). Determinants and Measurement of Climate Change Risk Perception, Worry, and Concern. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science.

Lowrey, W. (2004). Media dependency during a large-scale social disruption: The case of September 11. Mass Communication , 339–357.

Mckeever, A. (2020, March 17). National Geographic. Retrieved from Coronavirus is spreading panic. Here’s the science behind why.:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/modern-history/why-we- evolved- to-feel-panic-anxiety/

New Straits Times . (2020). Retrieved from Panic buying over Covid-19 reported worldwide:

https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/03/571926/panic-buying-over-covid-19- reported-worldwide

News, U. (2020, February 7). Coronavirus: demand for face masks creates shortfall for those in real need. Retrieved from United Nation News:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/02/1056942

Nunnally, J. (1967). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Posetti, J. (2018, January 4). Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age . Retrieved from UNESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0024/002480/248054E.pdf

Ren, S. Y., Gao, R. D., & Chen, Y. L. (2020). Fear can be more harmful than the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in controlling the corona virus disease 2019 epidemic. World Journal of Clinical Cases.

Reuters. (2020, October 1). Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved from Malaysia risks investment troubles as political drama drags on:

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/10/01/malaysia-risks- investment-troubles-as-political-drama-drags-on/

RTE. (2020, March 12). Tom Hanks and wife in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.

(16)

107

Retrieved from RTE: https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0312/1121761-hanks-covid-19/

Smith, W., & Freedman, D. O. (2020). Isolation, quarantine, social distancing and community containment: pivotal role for old-style public health measures in the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Journal Travel Med.

Sundarasen, S., Chinna, K., Kamaludin, K., & Nurunnabi, M. (2020). Psychological Impact of COVID-19 and Lockdown among University Students in Malaysia: Implications and Policy Recommendations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Testa, A., Giannuzzi, R., Sollazzo, F., & Petrongolo, L. (2013). Psychiatric emergencies (part I): Psychiatric disorders causing organic symptoms. 55-64.

The Star. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from Coronavirus and how social media firms are combating the spread of misinformation about the disease:

https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech- news/2020/03/05/coronavirus-and-how- social-media-firms-are-combating-the-spread-of- misinformation-about-the-disease Thomas, J. (2020, October 12). Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved from Mild panic buying breaks

out on news of Klang Valley lockdown:

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/10/12/mild-panic-buying- breaks-out-on-news-of-klang-valley-lockdown/

Times, N. S. (2020, October 23). New Straits Times. Retrieved from Malaysia’s Covid-19 numbers show no sign of slowing down:

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/10/23/malaysias-covid-19- numbers- show-no- sign-of-slowing-down/1915564

Wang, J., Gao, W., Fei, X. G., & Qing, Y. Y. (2020). Social psychology survey under novel coronavirus pneumonia: An analysis based on the survey data of 24–25 January 2020.

Governance 2020, 55–64.

Weinreich, N. K. (2006). Social Marketing Quarterly. Retrieved from Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Social Marketing Research.: http://www.social- marketing.com/research.html

Wheaton, M., Abramowitz, J., Berman, N., & Fabricant, L. (2012). Psychological predictors of anxiety in response to the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic. Cogn Ther Res, 210–8.

WHO. (2017). World Health Organisation. Retrieved from Communicating risk in public

health emergencies:

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/259807/9789241550208- eng.pdf?sequence=2

Williams, C. (2007). Research Methods. Journal of Business & Economic Research.\

Wirz, C. D., Xenos, M. A., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D., Chung, J. H., & Massarani, L. (2018).

Rethinking Social Amplification of Risk: Social Media and Zika in Three Languages.

Risk Analysis An International Journal.

Wong, J. C. (2020, February 1). The Guardian. Retrieved from As the coronavirus spreads, misinformation is spreading even faster:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/31/coronavirus- misinformation- spread-facebook-conspiracy-theories

Yagnik, J., & Chandra, Y. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Media For Sharing Information, Spreading Rumours, And Fake News. AN INTERNATIONAL BILINGUAL PEER REVIEWED REFEREED RESEARCH JOURNAL, 185-189