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

Hedviga Tkáčová, Martina Pavlíková, Zita Jenisová, Patrik Maturkanič and Roman Králik
Additional contact information
Hedviga Tkáčová: Department of Journalism, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Catholic University in Ruzomberok, 034 01 Ruzomberok, Slovakia
Martina Pavlíková: Department of Journalism, Faculty of Arts, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
Zita Jenisová: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
Patrik Maturkanič: College of Applied Psychology, 411 55 Terezín, Czech Republic
Roman Králik: Department of Russian Language, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 117198 Moscow, Russia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-19

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.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; high school students; human well-being; Slovak Republic; social media; social media management; sustaining well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10442/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10442/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10442-:d:638925

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().