Funny memes online are helping people cope with the coronavirus pandemic, study suggests – especially if they’re about Covid-19
- Viewing a few memes every day can be enough to help people cope better with the everyday stresses of life during the pandemic, a US study has found
- Subjects in the study who viewed memes with Covid-19 captions were more likely to feel less stress about the pandemic than those who viewed standard memes
A few funny memes every day can be enough to help people better cope with the everyday stresses of life during the pandemic, according to a US study of the effects of the humorous online content.
Such comical photos shared on social media can also increase people’s confidence in their ability to deal with the pandemic – but only if they are not too cutesy, according to the researchers, whose findings were published in the Psychology of Popular Media journal.
Last year, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports had reported that memes about depression can help lift the mood of those with mental health problems.
“As the pandemic kept dragging on, it became more and more interesting to me how people were using social media and memes in particular, as a way to think about the pandemic,” says Jessica Myrick, lead author of the new study.
