The study, which published online on Aug. 15 in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, included 320 participants living in urban districts of Wuhan, China. In February 2020, the team gave the participants an online survey that investigated how they accessed and shared health information with family members, friends and colleagues on social media, specifically WeChat, China’s most popular social media mobile app.
The results show that social media usage was related to both depression and secondary trauma during the early part of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. The findings suggest that taking a social media break from time to time may help to improve people’s mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. secondary trauma refers to the behaviors and emotions resulting from knowledge about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other.
— source Penn State | Sep 29, 2020