Going Viral: Keeping up with trends of the pandemic

It was not just the coronavirus that went viral since March 2020, our social media habits too flew off the charts. As the screen – phones or laptops – became a means to connect in a locked-down world, new trends have emerged in the way we communicate, engage and consume content.

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Writer Manasa Rao Saarloos tweeted: “Recently thought of deleting my Facebook account and start using Twitter, but realised it’s not easy. Facebook has become like the boyfriend I no longer like but scared to dump because I’ve invested so much time in the relationship.” This pretty much sums up our “it’s complicated” relationship with social media. But that was pre-pandemic. In April-July, said a Broadcast Audience Research Council and Nielsen report, content consumption on smartphones rose 16%. Users spent 3.54 hours a day on their devices – nearly 18% of that was on messaging apps, 15% on social media apps, 15% on video streaming apps and 11% on gaming.