Sudden Attention Shifts on Wikipedia During the COVID-19 Crisis

TL;DR

This study analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic and mobility restrictions significantly altered Wikipedia access patterns, with lasting changes in information interests across different topics and countries.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive longitudinal analysis linking mobility data with Wikipedia pageviews to reveal pandemic-driven shifts in information seeking behavior.

Findings

Transient increase in Wikipedia pageviews after mobility restrictions

Lasting changes in interest towards entertainment topics

Temporary or small interest shifts in health and biology topics

Abstract

We study how the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the severe mobility restrictions that ensued, has impacted information access on Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia. A longitudinal analysis that combines pageview statistics for 12 Wikipedia language editions with mobility reports published by Apple and Google reveals massive shifts in the volume and nature of information seeking patterns during the pandemic. Interestingly, while we observe a transient increase in Wikipedia's pageview volume following mobility restrictions, the nature of information sought was impacted more permanently. These changes are most pronounced for language editions associated with countries where the most severe mobility restrictions were implemented. We also find that articles belonging to different topics behaved differently; e.g., attention towards entertainment-related topics is lingering and even increasing, while the interest in health- and biology-related topics was either small or transient. Our results highlight the utility of Wikipedia for studying how the pandemic is affecting people's needs, interests, and concerns.