The Role Of Social Media In Improving Hygiene Practices Among General Public During COVID-19

Abstract

Social media has been a vibrant source of education for the masses during Covid-19. These virtual platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and WhatsApp, educated the general public of Pakistan with abundance of information regarding hygienic and healthy lifestyle. With the help of social media, people sorted to exercise at home, healthy dieting, proper medication and sanitizing from germs during the lockdown in pandemic situation which they were not consistently practiced previously. This research intends to explore general public’s dependency on social media for hygiene, and its impact on their lives during their lockdown. This quantitative research consists of survey method with a convenient sample of 200 residents of Lahore consisting of 4 different age brackets. The data predicts that people with high age took social media messages of exercise, diet, medication and sanitization more seriously and applied precautions aptly while respondents with low age bracket were less worried about diet but more concern about body exercises and sanitizing. Respondents from almost all the age brackets indicated towards their learning about medical understanding of a disease and its treatment. The study found out that people with less interaction with social media relied more on it with strong impact. It also indicates that social media has made people more conscious about healthy exercises, nutritious diet and authentic medication for disease free life. People got training to fight a global pandemic by utilizing social media adequately.