Memes helped people reduce COVID-related stress during pandemic, reveals new study

A new study conducted by researchers from Pennsylvania State University and University of California Santa Barbara reveals that memes have helped individuals to deal with life during harsh time of COVID-19 outbreak.  study has been released this week in 'Psychology of Popular Media journal'. 

As per a news release from American Psychological Association (APA), which issued journal, individuals who watched memes reported "higher levels of humor" and more pleasant moods. 

Memes are basically a pictorial representation of a situation that is used in a satirical tone, are made with funny ims and comments on political and social events.

Almost in every part and every time all around world, memes are made, shared, and enjoyed as part of ordinary social media activity.  

release explained that American Psychological Association had questioned 748 people online in December and found that 72% of those who replied were white people, 54% were women, while, 63% did t have a college degree, and ir s varied from 18 to 88. y were shown a range of various memes with each comprising its own set of photographs and text. Furr, y asked  participants to score contents on basis of attractiveness, comedy, and emotional reactions, as well as how much memes distracted m from COVID-19. 

Memes help in reducing COVID-related stress

finding of study reveals that those who watched funny memes during  stressful time of COVID-19 pandemic experienced less stress than those who watched n-pandemic-related memes. According to study, individuals were also considered more competent in dealing with COVID-19 problem and were better at information processing. y were even much less anxious about pandemic than those who didn't see any COVID-19-related memes. 

Furrmore,  study discovered that those who saw memes with attractive newborns or baby animals have been less likely to worry about outbreak or its consequences had on m, irrespective of nature of caption. Additionally, researchers also discovered that individuals preferred animal-med memes and found m cuter than human-med memes, according to APA. 

researchers furr found that memes about stressful events might possibly help people cope with and comprehend unpleasant experiences. Citing a statement of Jessica Gall Myrick, a lead author of study and a professor at Pennsylvania State University, NPR website reported, “While World Health Organization recommended that people avoid too much COVID-related media for benefit of ir mental health, our research reveals that memes about COVID-19 could help people feel more confident in ir ability to deal with pandemic.” 

Jessica went on to tell website that this study shows that t all media is equally harmful to one's psychological health and that individuals should pause to think about what kind of media y consume. “If we are all more conscious of how our behaviors, including time, spent scrolling, affect our emotional states, n we will better be able to use social media to help us when we need it and to take a break from it when we need that instead,” she added.  

(Im: Shutterstock/ Representative Im)