JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In the recent three months of 2020, a lot of information and news reports about the COVID-19 has been published and shared on social media and social networking sites. and it is being called the first true social-media ’infodemic’”. Therefore, the few published scientific resources in the social media ‘infodemic’ spreads panic and affect the mental health of followers of social media users.

Objective:

This study aimed to find out the effects of social media on spreading panic of COVID-19, and its impact on mental health in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Methods:

To carry out this study, an online questionnaire was prepared to conduct in Iraqi Kurdistan, and total number of 516 social media users were sampled. The present study deployed a content analysis method for the data analysis. Correspondingly, the data was analysed through SPSS version 25 and presented in tabulation and figures.

Results:

The study determined that social media has a significant impact spreading fears and panic of the COVID-19 outbreaks in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Along with this, it has a negative influence on people’s mental health and psychological wellbeing. According to the study results, Facebook is the top used social media responsible for spreading panic of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq. Most of the participants in the study believe that social media had a significant psychological impact on them during this COVID-19 outbreak.

Conclusions:

Social media has various effects on mental health. This study concluded that social media was responsible for spreading panic of COVID-19 among people in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is found that, there is a significant positive statistical correlation between Social media and spreading panic of COVID-19, which is (0.8701) and that the significance value. Youths are facing psychological problems as per the results indicated in this results majority of the youths under the age of 18-35 are facing psychological anxiety. However, as in the lockdown situation, people are using social media platforms to gain information about the COVID-19. The nature of the impacts of social media panic among people is different depending on the gender, age and level of education. It can be seen that social media has played a key role in spreading panic of COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan Region and other countries.