Social Media and Students’ Wellbeing: An Empirical Analysis during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Various forms of social media (SM) appear to be very popular among young people because they provide information and entertainment, including a wide range of web technologies such as blogs, wikis, online social networks, and virtual networks. SM plays a huge role in the lives of children and teenagers, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the computer becomes not only a means of entertainment or leisure, but also a necessary and everyday means of education and communication with other people. Thus, COVID-19 has brought a radical change, not only in the daily schedule and leisure time of pupils and students, but also in the perception of the procedures used by this specific group in the online space. Through our own research, using structured interviews and a questionnaire, we examine the use of SM as a tool to promote sustainable well-being in a group of high school students from various schools in central Slovak Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia). The research confirms that during the pandemic, the use of SM by the young respondents contributes significantly to well-being. This is the case when SM is used by high school students as a tool in promoting: (1) personal interests; (2) motivation; (3) communication and interpersonal connectivity; (4) preferred forms of online education; and (5) online games. The article presents a set of recommendations regarding the use of SM as a tool for sustaining the well-being of young people during the pandemic.