Abstract
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, people were forced to adapt to life indoors and online. It was a sudden and abnormal change for some who commute to work every day or choose to do a lot of activities such as socializing, outdoors. Online communities were already around before the pandemic, but this lockdown has given them the spotlight due to the ability to cherish common interests without leaving your home. Online communities became a place where people can still feel “normal” at the time by allowing people to be together but in their own homes. I gathered and studied scholarly articles to get a full picture of what were the key factors of online communities that may have affected our mental health. I looked deeper into Reddit groups as well as Facebook groups to see how online communities has affected users’ mental health whether it be for better or for worse.
Keywords: Groups, Online communities, Facebook groups, Discord, Mental health, Collectivism, Online friends, FOMO
Introduction
Due to the widespread use of the internet, we have collectively added a new way to meet, communicate, and bond with other people and that is done online. Basically, if you have internet access anywhere you can make friends across the globe as long as they also have access to the internet. Well, what happens when a number of people want to bond with each other at the same time online? Is that automatically considered an online community? According to the Cambridge dictionary, an online community is “a group of people who use a particular internet service or belong to a particular group on the internet.” So if there is a common interest that categorizes someone with other people with the same interest, then yes it is an online community.
According to PeerBoard, 76% of internet users are part of an online community. That is comprises more than half of the millions of people that have internet access. Online communities have been around for as long as the beginning of the internet. It has made finding people with common interest much easier due to the fact that internet access can reach people from the other side of the world. Early online communities mainly looked like forums and chatrooms. Today, online communities look much different but doesn’t stray too far away from its beginnings.
Today’s online communities can be found in almost all the popular social media platforms, but the ones that keeps a much more tightknit essence to it are Reddit, Discord, Facebook Groups, and Twitch. Reddit is a more forum-based platform and Discord gives more of a chatbot feel based on common interests with added features such as voice chat and other added bots to enhance the experience. Facebook Groups are more targeted towards individual Facebook users that found a common interest with other Facebook users, and it has a forum and chat features which combines Reddit and Discord all together. Twitch is somewhat a different platform compared to others due to the fact that users join together based on a common interest of a single entity or person.
Knowing that there are so many people that are in online communities, how does this affect the mental health and real-life relationships of participating users? So many questions can be asked on the pros and cons of online friendships vs. real-life interactions. We dive deep into what makes online communities a legitimized form of bonding. Online communities are a quickly evolving part of social media that can affect or contribute to users’ mental health.
Communities Thriving in the Pandemic
In 2020, the U.S. entered lockdown to help combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This meant that we had to quickly adapt and change our lives from being able to go out and socialize outdoors face-to-face to learning how to cope with staying indoors most of the time. At that time, we were still figuring out our school and work situation, what’s next? Over the course of time, we were able to manage life by trying to move everything we can online. This meant having classes and work mainly online for those who can, but for front line workers such as nurses and grocery employees it stayed the same unfortunately.
Once we got the hang of moving essential duties such as work and school, society then thought of ways to move other things online such as seeing your doctor, therapy, even concerts were able to switch to an online platform. One of the biggest aspects of our lives that were able to quickly adapt was socializing. To be even more specific, socializing in groups became a hit. Social events like going out with your friends to watch a movie or workout were not a normal thing during the lockdown and so these type of group settings were moved to the online platforms. There were tons of other creative ideas that sprouted from the lockdown, things like being able to watch a movie together with your friends and being on the same exact part of the movie as them. I have noticed gym classes such as Zumba were able to adapt through Facebook Groups and it even became one of their selling points as I have seen ads about this on TV.
Online communities have always been there looming over us, but the pandemic has intensified this need for socializing and a longing for belonging during the time that almost everyone in the world was in self-isolation. Companies like Zoom became a massive hit during this time as employers and schools required it to be able to interact in the workplace or in a school setting. I can say that even though this wasn’t really a trip to a restaurant, school and work are for other people’s source of daily socialization with other human beings in where sometimes solid friendships are formed.
With the rise of social media and mental health issues, a lot of people are turning to online communities to share their experience with a certain mental health situation or illness. This helps other people who have the same condition to feel less alone. For example, people who have been recently diagnosed with a mental health condition might feel lost and embarrassed, online communities can help these people cope by other people sharing tips about how they handle specific situations related to it.
According to the research article The Future of Mental Health Care: Peer-to-Peer Support and Social Media, “People with serious mental illness report benefits from interacting with peers online from greater social connectedness, feelings of group belonging and by sharing personal stories and strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges of living with a mental illness” (2016). Especially with the pandemic happening, a lot of negative emotions have come to light due to the fact that no one else has ever experienced this situation before. Other people feels some type of assurance just by the fact that other people are acknowledging the fear and panic they feel due to the pandemic. Doing this confirms people’s feelings that they are not the only ones feeling this way. Another part mentioned, “We take the perspective that when an individual with serious mental illness decides to connect with similar others online, it represents a critical point in their illness experience” (2016). This proves the fact that online communities are a great resource to feel less isolation when dealing with mental health issues.
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Online Community Management as Another Essential Job
A fact about online communities big enough is that they are not managed by itself. It takes a community manager just like in any real-life community to organize things and events to make sure that the members of the community are having a positive experience while gathering and bonding over a common interest. While there are not a lot of tangible and physical aspects of management in this role, it still takes a lot of work to host and keep an online community in order. In the online world, these community managers are mostly referred to as moderators or “mods.”
One can argue that managing something online is easier due to the physical factors being not as prevalent as real-life communities. The caveat to that is it can actually be a lot more difficult due to the fact that anyone can just join the group and possibly managing a thousand users online vs. 20 people at a face-to-face gathering can escalate chaos a lot faster. According to Matthew E. Perks, “Community managers often work to combat toxicity and harassment online to maintain safe and open communities. Despite an obvious need for this work in mediating the myriad of personalities and sheer number of users, community management is often underpaid and precarious work” (2020).
Especially during a time of high vulnerability and tension due to the isolation that the pandemic has bestowed on us, being in a poorly managed online community can trigger negative emotions causing more stress and a feeling of entrapment of not knowing where to turn to. Despite that possible con to online communities, it is the moderator’s jobs at the time of the lockdown to guide users to a safe space where they can socialize safely without adding more stress to an overwhelming world.
But for most moderators, management of users doesn’t end as soon as a user logs out, they also tried to prepare users for normalcy once the world opened up again to alleviate the sudden change that were to happen at that time. Perks mention, “Looking forward to an inevitable return to normalcy, questions remain if they will be recognized for the work they have done to help connect, engage, and provide comfort to those seeking it during this time of self-isolation” (2020). It is important to remember that these moderators play a key role in keeping online communities safe and a positive experience for most users.
Digital Intervention for Better Mental Health
During the beginning of the pandemic, the biggest health concern most had was not getting infected with the virus due to the unknown effects we can have from an unknown illness. People started noticing that there is also another aspect of our health that we are compromising from the steps we took to not get infected, this aspect is our mental health. Many were concerned due to the fact that socialization and human interaction were big factors on improving one’s mental health. With the lockdown limiting these factors we dive deeper on how to solve and alleviate this problem that many are experiencing.
One of the innovative adaptations that came to life and thrived during the lockdown was telehealth or online therapy sessions. I can admit, I to this day choose to stick to the online version of my health sessions. The main reasons on why I chose this option was because it was convenient, and I can tell that it had the same effect on me personally specifically speaking about online therapy sessions. Especially during the pandemic when meeting face-to-face posed a real health risk, this was a great way to express my feelings about this sudden catastrophe that hit our lives. Finding healthy coping mechanisms were a key factor on surviving the lockdown and the uncertainty of this virus. The health community may not be the conventional type of online community we are discussing most can agree that online therapy has been a great help to everyone having a hard time during these uncertain times.
A study conducted by the JMIR mentioned, “Digital tools may help to mitigate negative psychosocial consequences most effectively if intervention strategies are not only targeted at vulnerable individuals in a clinically high-risk state or with a mental disorder but also at the population level” (2021). Knowing that digital tools can directly affect mental health, not only are online communities stepping up but also health companies. Mainly to target the other side effects that can trigger certain mental health issues but also existing issues that are suffering due to the lack of services at the time.
Mentioned earlier in this essay is how online communities are helping mental health, we can tie this same idea back to this portion of the essay. Again, acknowledgement is very helpful in order to help realize the problem, according to a research article Self- and Other-Diagnosis in User-Led Mental Health Online Communities, “These exchanges tell us much about the value of online forums for community members as support mechanisms, but they also reveal how important identification is for users” (2010). The feeling of isolation can worsen mental health issues and so online communities can be a great tool to lessen this effect especially during a time in where we weren’t allowed to leave the house.
Figure 2 below describes the cycle of how people coping with mental health illness are feeling and how online communities are helping them feel less isolated. This combats the factor of social isolation, fear of reaching out, stigma, and symptoms of mental illness. Online communities help people coping with illness reach people who are also coping with the same illness from across the world.
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The Less Internet-Savvy Groups
For some of us, navigating the internet is fairly easy due to the fact that most of us use it almost every day. It is integrated into our daily lives such as work and school, the pandemic has also forced even the non-believers of the internet to give it a try. When everyone is online, you might be wondering where is everyone in the real world? Some people have not fully adapted to the internet world yet and have been doing things the traditional way of face-to-face.
For older adults, finding the right online equivalent of what they are used to such as group exercises can be a difficult journey. With so many different online communities, finding the right fit with people you connect with can be especially hard in the online world. A research article called Online-Delivered Group and Personal Exercise Programs to Support Low Active Older Adults’ Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial, finds out if online group exercises or personalized one-on-one exercise sessions have an effect on older adults’ mental health.
Older adults were targeted for this study mainly because they are prone to a decreased physical and mental well-being due to isolation. According to the same study Online-Delivered Group and Personal Exercise Programs to Support Low Active Older Adults’ Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Randomized Controlled Trial, it was found that older adults in an online group exercise setting showed an increased adherence to the program compared to adults that were in an online personal exercise session. There were however no significant results on the effect of mental health. From this study alone, online communities do give older adults a sense of belonging that keeps them motivated to continue with the group program. Figure 3 shows a Zoom class of an online group exercise session mainly amongst older adults that are trying to keep healthy during the pandemic.
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When it comes to online communities, it can easily be adjusted to accommodate anyone’s needs. There is a sense of fulfillment when being able to help others adjust to learning especially during a worldwide pandemic. According to the Journal of Curriculum Studies Research ,“This special issue represents a crucial time to understand the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and education within inclusive teaching. The five articles represent diverse perspectives on the migration toward online/virtual teaching, especially in the time of pandemic. The articles published contain a range of contexts, use differing methodologies, and focus on various experiences from students, pre-service teachers, to communities at large” (2021). This is a great way to exercise these justices that were mentioned in the article. With online communities no one should feel left out just because they do not have enough knowledge with technology, older people are allowed to reap the benefits of socialization that online communities can provide through education.
Being able to interact with other people who are in the same situation as you or a common interest can create a bond with others regardless of if it’s in person or not. Being alone physically might cause some loneliness but online communities can make people feel alone together in a sense that they are alone in their physical homes but are sharing this space together online. It’s interesting to learn that without knowing what we look like or even having physical touch that we can feel certain feelings for other people just through our thoughts and essence.
Conclusion
Online communities have been around for many years, hosting bonds based on shared interests and building relationships with people located at the opposite side of the world. With the COVID-19 virus emerging in 2020, we were forced to create and find online alternatives for our daily essential activities such as work, school, and hobbies. During the pandemic, we have seen how important online communities and human connections are. No matter what happens to the world we still find a way to manage to group together and keep each other company.
Plenty of heroes emerged from this challenge that society had to face such as nurses, doctors, grocery associates, and other essential workers. We sometimes neglect the fact that since online communities are a significant part of our lives, managing them is not as easy. Being able to provide a safe space for everyone to be able to gather and healthily cope with the uncertainty of the world is an essential duty that does not get enough recognition. Online communities have proven that it is still possible to feel a sense of belonging and togetherness regardless of physical status. It is the thoughts, ideas, and energy that we bring around each other that keeps the world afloat and surviving.
References
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Cambridge Dictionary. (2022, March 2). online community meaning: a group of people who use a particular internet service or belong to a particular group on the. . .. Learn more. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/online-community
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Perks, M. (2020, June 24). Self-Isolated but Not Alone: Community Management Work in the Time of a Pandemic. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773999
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