With millions at home under state orders aimed at curbing the coronavirus, many are turning to social media to keep up on the crisis — and it’s making them more ill-informed, according to a groundbreaking study.
In the report from Reboot Foundation and shared this morning with Secrets, 36% of heavy users of social media fell for virus myths and misinformation or got something wrong about the coronavirus, versus those who tapped into official sources like the Centers for Disease Control.
For example, Reboot told us that 10% thought regularly rinsing their nose with saline would help ward off the virus, 26% thought it would die off in the spring, 20% don’t think it’s serious, and one-third believe in overall virus “myths.”
And armed with dangerous theories, more and more are posting the myths online, at a rate of 1,000 tweets a minute, said Reboot.
“Defeating the coronavirus depends on an informed and conscientious public that will conform to social distancing guidelines; practice good hygiene; and avoid unnecessary trips away from home,” says Helen Lee Bouygues, author of the report and head of the Reboot Foundation.
“But so far the public’s response has been mixed, and misinformation about COVID-19 are a big part of the problem,” she said.
President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force and the medical authorities tied to it have stressed daily the ways to stop the virus. State governors have reinforced that message. But it isn’t sinking in as fast as Washington wants.
In Going Viral: How Social Media Is Making the Coronavirus Worse, Bouygues found that social media was in the way of many people understanding the virus and how to stop its spread.
The key finding was that the more people used social media, the less informed they were.
“For instance, heavy social media users were significantly more likely to believe the virus was created by humans, and more likely to believe that items from China could contain the virus,” said the nine-page report.
“An increase in social media use correlated with an increase in people being misinformed about the virus. For example, 22% of those checking social media once a week harbored at least one wrong belief about the virus. In contrast, for those checking social media hourly or more frequently, that number jumped to 36%, or a difference of 14 percentage points,” it added.
Unclear is why. But the report hints that one reason is people are sharing more and more the myths on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.
“In short, the information on social media about COVID-19 is high in volume and low in quality, and heavy users of social media tend to exhibit a poor understanding of the crisis,” said Reboot.
The report added, “There is a lot of misinformation about the coronavirus, and many Americans have a weak or ill-founded understanding of the virus.”
Bouygues said her results were troubling. “These results are alarming because an ill-informed public could undermine efforts to contain the virus,” she said, adding, “The coronavirus crisis is being exacerbated by a crisis in basic media literacy.”
