#StayHome #WithMe: How Do YouTubers Help with COVID-19 Loneliness?

TL;DR

This study analyzes how YouTubers contributed to alleviating COVID-19 loneliness through the #StayHome #WithMe movement, highlighting video styles and parasocial relationships that foster social provisions and mental wellbeing.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of 1488 videos to understand how creators used various styles to offer social support during a disaster.

Findings

Popular video styles included skill sharing, arts, and gameplay.

Parasocial relationships helped create a sense of companionship.

Family-like provisions achieved the highest viewer engagement.

Abstract

Loneliness threatens public mental wellbeing during COVID-19. In response, YouTube creators participated in the #StayHome #WithMe movement (SHWM) and made myriad videos for people experiencing loneliness or boredom at home. User-shared videos generate parasocial attachment and virtual connectedness. However, there is limited knowledge of how creators contributed videos during disasters to provide social provisions as disaster-relief. Grounded on Weiss's loneliness theory, this work analyzed 1488 SHWM videos to examine video sharing as a pathway to social provisions. Findings suggested that skill and knowledge sharing, entertaining arts, homelife activities, live chatting, and gameplay were the most popular video styles. YouTubers utilized parasocial relationships to form a space for staying away from the disaster. SHWM YouTubers provided friend-like, mentor-like, and family-like provisions through videos in different styles. Family-like provisions led to the highest overall viewer engagement. Based on the findings, design implications for supporting viewers' mental wellbeing in disasters are discussed.