The Impact of Psychological Distress Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer Preferences for Online Entertainment Content
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1. Psychological Distress and the COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 was a period characterised by the highest levels of uncertainty due to the systemic nature of the crisis affecting all areas of life ranging from personal health and safety to income stability (Firth et al., 2024; Scarfe et al., 2022; Thompson et al., 2022). With lockdowns limiting the availability of traditional coping strategies such as socialisation, online entertainment content was one of the most available methods of dealing with stress due to its high affordability and accessibility (Flesia et al., 2023). In terms of the key psychological distress types encountered by consumers, existing studies identified income instabilities, self-perceived risks of exposure, frequency of outdoor visits, compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions, work-life conflicts, and contacts with families and friends (Arias-Ulloa et al., 2023; Pongou et al., 2022). At the same time, Thompson et al. (2022) noted that the scope of the decrease in mental health caused by the pandemic varied depending on age, family status, and overall anxiety levels. As found by them, even the persons suffering from fear without a serologically confirmed infection status experienced great psychological distress due to the concerns related to the potential economic and social consequences of COVID-19.
The consumption of online content is frequently cited as one of the coping strategies people use to fight anxiety and boredom (Graziani et al, 2023; Firth et al., 2024; Patel et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2023). While its adverse impact may be less prominent than that of smoking or substance abuse, a number of studies indicate that these activities still affect mental health through attention fatigue, fear of missing out, doomscrolling, and compulsive use of digital platforms such as binge-watching or social media addiction (Gregersen et al., 2023; Maftei et al., 2023; Peng et al., 2022). With COVID-19 making online social media content, video games, and online streaming extremely popular due to lockdown limitations, some scholars suggested that psychological distress may be positively related to consumer preferences in this sphere (Ertz et al., 2022; Ying et al., 2023). An understanding of these mechanisms may be valuable to practitioners willing to explore what forms of content produce minimal adverse effects on consumer audiences or may be more desirable to alleviate stress and help users sustain their mental health.
As found by Luo et al. (2022) and Wallinheimo and Evans (2022), the shift to online communication and entertainment during COVID-19 had a generally detrimental effect on individuals’ mental health due to greater feelings of loneliness and social isolation. While the time spent on the Internet generally increased during the pandemic, the persons reducing Internet use during this period reported generally lower levels of anxiety, depression, and stress scores (Wallinheimo & Evans, 2022). In this aspect, the consumption of entertainment content was seen as a replacement for ‘doomscrolling’ activities similar to binge-watching TV series or browsing through social media newsfeeds for positive views (Price et al., 2022). However, the findings of Deutrom et al. (2022), Gioia et al. (2022), and Patel et al. (2022) suggest that the effectiveness of these activities as coping strategies was controversial since they could not fully replace face-to-face interactions and socialisation and could stimulate social anxiety and other negative emotional states instead of alleviating distress.
2.2. Consumer Preferences for Online Entertainment Content During the Pandemic
The emergence of TikTok and other short video platforms was one of the online entertainment content formats that was especially popular during the pandemic (Falgoust et al., 2022; Yu et al., 2024). In line with the Uses and Gratification Theory, it combined social support, social interaction, entertainment, utility and convenience for widespread communication, escaping from everyday life, and seeking and sharing information elements (Abraham et al., 2022; Peng et al., 2022). From a practical standpoint, contests and viral challenges allowed users to get engaged in group activities, which was different from passive content consumption leading to social isolation. Live streams were another highly popular format of online content that was especially popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of the aforementioned Uses and Gratification model, it created a variety of positive effects including social and personal tension release gratifications, stressful emotions relief, perceived affective enjoyment, companionship, escape, relaxation, and distraction from boredom and anxiety (Mao, 2022). With that being said, the high rates of psychological distress cases both during and after the pandemic reported by Arias-Ulloa et al. (2023), Flesia et al. (2023), and Thompson et al. (2022) raise substantiated concerns regarding the effectiveness of such coping strategies.
The search for content diversity was another trend reported by Yadav and Jain (2023) and Ying et al. (2023). As a single online entertainment provider such as a famous blogger, a video game or a TV series or film could not reliably address the needs of all consumers, this led to the emergence of various subscription-based content aggregators such as Netflix or Xbox Game Pass (Merilainen, 2022; Ying et al., 2023). The unique appeal of these platforms was associated with the ability to choose from a wide variety of offerings, which ensured that users could never run out of digital entertainment items to consume. From the standpoint of the psychological distress impact, this reflected such motivations as increased demand for positive content, escapism, and comforting or nostalgic content (Oka et al., 2024; Ryu & Cho, 2022). As users were exposed to high levels of uncertainty, their natural intention was to alleviate this anxiety with a wide range of entertainment materials, which substantiated the preference for providers offering a broad range of such items with minimal limitations.
At the same time, the analysis of Sim et al. (2022) revealed that music streaming consumption was substantially reduced in many countries as opposed to video game streaming and other online entertainment content. In light of the findings of Ryu and Cho (2022), high-demand content in the ‘fortuitous’ and ‘triumphant’ categories lacked physicality/synchronicity, provided rich immersive experiences combining visual appeal with socialisation, and could be consumed at any moment. These characteristics were present in online video games, streaming services, and the latest TV series that could be discussed with others (Arya et al., 2022; Marques et al., 2023). With that being said, the evidence regarding the relationships between psychological distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and specific consumer preferences for online entertainment content remains relatively limited (Maftei et al., 2023; Merilainen, 2022). While the studies discussed in this section offer insights into individual types of offerings or suggest possible explanations for their popularity during the pandemic, they do not offer a holistic model of factors related to mental health challenges that substantiate the increased demand for specific offerings or the lack thereof (Arya et al., 2022; Taschereau-Dumouchel et al., 2022). This thesis seeks to develop such a framework and address this research gap.
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