Apart not alone while we #workfromhome: Tweeters Online Communal Coping with Involuntary Remote Work During COVID-19
Author: Saralie Sernhede Advisor: Carolina Martinez School of Arts & Communication K3 Malmö University Spring 2020
Abstract This thesis explores the role of social media in communal coping. Specifically, it explores the role of Twitter in the communal coping with stressors affecting a global population due to the COVID-19 pandemic disease, with the purpose of answering the main research question: How is Twitter being used as a platform for online coping with the common stressor of involuntary teleworking from home during a pandemic? Through a mixed methods analysis of Twitter content collected from two weeks in April 2020, this thesis examines how Tweeters are connecting with each other through the hashtag #workfromhome in order to cope with stressors involved with working remotely from their homes. Using sensitized concepts from theoretical frameworks and prior studies of coping, a hermeneutic approach to social science was adopted in the research. Qualitative and quantitative content analysis was performed in several rounds of iterative process coding. The results of this thesis suggest that in the context of COVID-19 Tweeting is itself part of the coping process. Further, online coping strategies can first and foremost be recognized as communal. In answer to the main research question, Twitter is being used as a platform for communal coping orientation, communication about the stressor, and cooperative action. With the changing nature of work and the ongoing uncertainty concerning the long-term implications of COVID-19, the direction of this thesis and its findings may assist organizations and stakeholders alike in understanding the impact of involuntary remote work on individuals. Lastly, the findings open up new opportunities for research within the field of studying online coping efforts.
Keywords Social media, Twitter, hashtag, communal coping, remote work, COVID-19
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. BACKGROUND 2
2.1 COVID-19 2
2.2 Twitter 4
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 9
3.1 Contexts for Coping: Critical Situations, Crises & Disasters 9
3.2 Individual, Collective & Communal Coping 10
3.3 Humor & Coping 13
4. LITERATURE REVIEW 15
4.1 Media Studies and Coping Research 15
4.2 Localization of Thesis within the Literature & Implications 18
5. METHODOLOGY 19
5.3 Qualitative & Quantitative Content Analysis 22
5.4 Data Collection, Logics of Inquiry & Coding Process 23
5.5 Limitations 27
5.6 Ethical Implications 29
6. RESULTS 30
6.1 Communal Coping Orientation 31
6.2 Communication About the Stressor 34 6.2.1 Defining the new normal 34 6.2.2 Expressing practical & emotional difficulty 37
6.3 Cooperative Action 39 6.3.1 Asking for/offering help, support, & connection 39 6.3.2 Maintaining a positive narrative 41 6.3.3 Using humor to address the stressors 42
7. DISCUSSION 46
8. CONCLUSION 49
REFERENCES 51
FIGURE REFERENCES 55
APPENDIXES 56
List of Figures
Figure 1: The Benign Violations Theory (McGraw & Warner, 2015)
Figure 2: Circular process of coding (DeCuir-Gunby, Marshall & McCulloch, 2011. P. 139)
Figure 3: 100 Most used words in Tweets with #workfromhome (2020)
Figure 4: Representation of Benign Violations Theory (McGraw & Warner, 2015. p 62)
1. INTRODUCTION
On the 12th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic disease (World Health Organization, 2020). In the time of writing this thesis, the world seems to be talking about little else than this extremely contagious virus, which is spreading across the globe like wildfire. Societies around the world have been forced to change both current government regulations and the daily routines of individuals in order to deal with the crisis. Social distancing and self-quarantine have been encouraged, and in many places, quarantine has been enforced by law. Businesses have had to stop their operations, either due to regulation or due to the lack of healthy staff and customers. This has impacted the daily lives of citizens globally. One big adaptation has been that if the nature of their work allows it, employees, managers, and entrepreneurs alike have had to adjust to working remotely to help stop the spread of the virus. Whole societies have had their life-routines uprooted and are now dealing with a variety of stressors related to working remotely from their own homes (World Health Organization, 2020).
Through a mixed methods analysis of Twitter content collected from two weeks in April 2020, when the full impact of the pandemic disease had been explicitly recognized globally, this study examines how Tweeters are connecting with each other through the hashtag #workfromhome in order to cope with stressors involved with working remotely from their homes. The role of social media in the communal coping with these specific stressors becomes additionally significant in this contemporary context, as individuals are physically isolated from socially connecting with peers, groups, or communities outside of their homes, with whom they may otherwise share the communal coping process (Lyons et. al., 1998). While physical routines and social interactions have been aggressively disrupted, online interaction has increased as social media users turn to one of the few parts of their life which has not been uprooted by the pandemic (Twitter, 2020). This allows for an approach that tweeting in itself is a form of coping with disrupted routines, as it to some extent maintains normalcy in times of crisis.
This context and topic, together with the approach to understanding online communal coping, makes this study unique. Shifting the focus from local natural disasters and activist
1 movements to an emergent global crisis, this study continues to explore the role of social media in communal coping. Specifically, it explores the role of Twitter in the coping with stressors affecting a global population due to the COVID-19 pandemic disease, with the purpose of answering the main research question: How is Twitter being used as a platform for online coping with the common stressor of involuntary teleworking from home during a pandemic?
With the changing nature of work and the ongoing uncertainty concerning the long-term implications of COVID-19, the direction of this thesis and its findings may assist organizations and stakeholders alike in understanding the impact of involuntary remote work on individuals. An understanding of the stressors involuntary remote work creates could help organizations respond to these stressors with possible solutions and help strengthen the coping process overall. The unique specific context of COVID-19 and the focus on that the use of social media in itself is part of the communal coping process of dealing with stressors related to the pandemic opens up a new line of research within the field of studying online coping efforts.
2. BACKGROUND
In the following section, the research problem will be placed in its contemporary context. The background against which the research problem stands will be presented, along with an overview of how the situation has developed over time and space. The social context and environment of Twitter will be examined, both in more general terms and as a space for online communal coping. Lastly, the recognized significance and challenges of the context in which this study takes place will be described.
2.1 COVID-19
On December 30th 2019, a patient with an unknown form of pneumonia in Wuhan Junyintan Hospital in China was recognized to be a carrier of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19)(World Health Organization, 2020). This was the first confirmed case of the zoonotic virus and infectious disease which would on the 12th of March 2020 be recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic. As of February 2020, a cumulative total of 75 465 cases of COVID-19 were reported in China (World Health Organization, 2020). As of
2 May 11th, 2020, there had been 4 013 728 confirmed cases, 278 993 confirmed deaths in 215 confirmed countries, areas or territories according to the WHO (World Health Organization, 2020). At this time, although there are many clinical trials in action to find a cure, there is no vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020)
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 every community in the world has been affected either directly or indirectly. Public health and social measures have been put in place in all countries to hinder the spread of the deadly virus. These measures vary across borders, but all include elements of stay-at-home orders, the closing of schools, shops and religious centers, as well as limitations on domestic and international travel (Surveillance strategies for Covid- 19 human infection, 10 May 2020). According to the “UN Framework for Immediate Socio- Economic Response to COVID-19” (2020), COVID-19 is far more than a health crisis. They estimate that in the second quarter of 2020, the crisis could lead to a decline in 195 million full-time equivalent workers (United Nations, 2020).
Similarly, in their joint public statement on COVID-19, the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) stated that COVID-19 is threatening both the health and the livelihoods of workers and employers globally (International Organization of Employers & International Trade Union Confederation, 2020). Further recognizing the socio-economic impact of COVID-19, the International Labor Organization (ILO) stated in a report from early April that “no matter where in the world or in which sector, the crisis is having a dramatic impact on the world’s workforce” (United Nations, 2020).
The need for social distancing and isolation to stop the spread of the virus is placing great strain on both global and local economies. In this context, evident multi-tier challenges are to be met both on national and international levels. On one such tier of this global crisis, businesses that can maintain their operations up and running while their workforce teleworks are facing the challenges of operating remotely and completely online (UN, 2020). Correspondingly, it has come to be a common theme that COVID-19 may change our perception of communication, education, consumption, and work (United Nations, 2020). “Digital new society already came into our life, but we never imagined that we could be forced to stay at home and to use the digital worlds to connect ourselves and make our business continue. So that is something absolutely new”, stated the Secretary-General of the
3 International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Houlin Zhao on the subject at a digital briefing in early May 2020 (United Nations, 2020. p. 1).
While both international and national efforts are being made to ensure that as much of the workforce as possible has the technology, ability, support, and opportunity to maintain their livelihood while teleworking (UN, 2020), this transition does not come without both large- scale practical and individual existential challenges of its own. With a larger remote workforce than ever before, a tripled use of internet traffic globally, and an unprecedented increase in usage of digital devices to perform required work tasks, practical challenges such as technical issues and cybercrime have increased drastically (United Nations, 2020).
Along with these more practical challenges of a drastically increased remote workforce, there are further existential consequences of such a large number of individuals involuntarily working from home. In their study on the implications of involuntary vs. voluntary flexible work, Kaduk, Genadek, Kelly & Moen (2019) explore the complexity behind remote work and flexible schedules. Their findings include notions that involuntary variable schedules and location independence when working are associated with greater stress, burnout, turnover intentions, work-to-family conflict, and lower job satisfaction (Kaduk, Genadek, Kelly & Moen, 2019). In this context the challenges of involuntary remote work are joined by the dissolving of routines and regular social interactions, as well as the emotional stress of living through a pandemic.
2.2 Twitter
One aspect of daily life that has been less uprooted by the pandemic is social media usage. While physical routines and social interactions have been aggressively disrupted, online interaction has increased as social media users turn to one of the few parts of their life which has not been drastically limited by the pandemic (Twitter, 2020).
As will become apparent, an increasing amount of research is being directed towards social media. As platforms for publishing thoughts and opinions, sharing content, and connecting with a larger community, scholars from across fields have recognized the relevance of examining these communication platforms (Highfields & Leaver, 2015). Twitter is one such
4 popular platform, in which the sharing of content and ideas is done through “tweets”, a textual piece of content limited to 280 characters. Twitter has come to be one of the most popular social media platforms, having 330 million active users worldwide in 2019 (Chong, 2019). The wide possibilities for distribution accredited to Twitter are in part due to tools and features of the platform which allow “tweeters” to cluster, modify, re-broadcast, and reply to ongoing conversations and messages (Moscato,2016).
One of the features of Twitter, and other social platforms as well, is the option for the users to add or create hashtags together with their tweet. In accordance with the platform’s algorithm, a hashtag helps distribute and organize information, feelings, and opinions about topics, events, or news (Chong, 2019). Represented by the # symbol, hashtags draw attention to the context in which a tweet is posted.
The relevant hashtag to this study is #workfromhome. Users use the hashtag #workfromhome to share their remote work experiences. The hashtag was first used in five tweets in 2009, firstly in promotional tweets for online work opportunities. Since then it has been increasingly used by marketers, employers offering remote work, and remote workers alike. In 2019, it was used five times during April. Three of these five tweets were represented by business accounts. A year later, the full impact of COVID-19 was being felt by the world, forcing a global population to work from their homes. In mid-April 2020, when this study was conducted, 92 506 tweets (retweets included) were hashtagged with #workfromhome - this only from the six days of data collection performed at the start of this research project
(12th - 14th of April and 22th - 24th of April).
Using hashtags is a community-driven practice in which a user by attaching the # to a tweet is promoting folksonomy, which in turn can be interpreted and analyzed as part of a larger set of metadata (Chong, 2019). An online community is created where users can share emotions and grievances, discuss identity-related issues, share resources, and create momentum for physical protests (Schneider & Carpenter, 2018). The opportunity for users to learn about and use trending hashtags like #workfromhome allows them to join in the ongoing conversation and connect with others discussing similar topics. However, many of these tweets are strategically used for marketing purposes, commercial campaigns, and business audience growth. Due to the algorithms of Twitter, a tweet may have greater reach if trending hashtags are used wisely (Fisherman, 2020).
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Unsurprisingly, the general impact of social media platforms and their accompanying features have in no way gone unnoticed by the world. Well-known social networking platforms have been credited with being a force for democratizing communication between organizations and stakeholders (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011), freeing self-representation communication from mass media filters (Uldum & Askanias, 2013), reducing financial and skill-based barriers which dissolve the divide between media producers and consumers (Della Porta, 2013), and in doing so giving a great number of communicators the ability to streamline messages through micro-blogging (Moscato, 2016). Furthermore, organizations across industries have recognized Twitter to specifically be a powerful device for public education approaches. In the process of connecting with people to build deep emergent ties in order to mobilize supporters and fans, tools like hashtags can play a very important role (Guo & Saxton, 2014). Social media has further allowed users to expand their social support networks beyond their usual community, which in turn has assisted in the process of coping with difficult life events (Schneider & Carpenter, 2019; Orchowski et al., 2013).
As with many innovations and societal trends, social media platforms and their features do have their downside. The collapsing of several contexts and audiences into one, the formation of exclusive groups, and features allowing for blocking comments and excluding users from threads through blocklists stand behind arguments against the democratic inclusiveness social media platforms such as Twitter has been praised for (Marwick & Boyd, 2012; Wheatley & Vatnoey, 2019). Social media usage, while sometimes studied for its benefits in connecting people across physical boundaries, have also shown to be related to mental health issues and sleeping disorders (Jamison-Powell et. al. 2012). Studies on the use of social media in the context of critical situations further present a darker side (Alexander, 2014). To name a few negative trends, rumor propaganda, the spread of false information, and political as well as commercial purposes are recognized as the negative elements of social media in times of crisis (Alexander, 2014). In terms of online coping strategies, it has become clear that the disclosure of personal experiences can expand the support network of individuals, but it has also seen to invite backlash, which may harm the coping process (Schneider & Carpenter, 2019).
6 This study does not attempt to answer questions about whether the use of social media in the coping process is beneficial or not, it simply acknowledges that online coping is taking place and aims to explain the role Twitter has in the communal coping process. However, in the context of studying online communal coping, it should be kept in mind that not all coping processes involve voluntary, conscious decisions to cope at all or how to do so (Lyon, et. al., 1998). Nor are coping strategies always beneficial when facing the stressors at hand, whether done online or offline (Golbeck, 2016).
Relevant to the study of social media usage is the one of self-presentation. Erving Goffman recognizes identity as a continual performance in his seminal text “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (1959). Goffman suggests that individuals carefully monitor their self- presentation depending on audience and context. In a social collaborative process, individuals all take part in upholding their own and each other’s self-images, through strategies such as collectively encouraging social norms, negotiating power differentials and conflicts, and maintaining face. This approach to self-presentation becomes particularly complicated in the social context of social media platforms such as Twitter.
The social networks on Twitter are made up of follows and followers. In contrast to social media platforms such as Facebook, there is a disconnect between the two. For instance, a user may be followed by 100 000 other users but only follow 100 users or the other way around. While it is possible to make an account private – meaning its content can only be viewed by accepted followers – the majority of Twitter accounts are public (Marwick & Boyd, 2010; Jamison-Powell et. al. 2012). Functions such as retweeting and using hashtags assist in spreading content to new eyes, as well as search engines and third-party software. Users may have an idea of who their audience is, but due to the aspects of the platform mentioned above, these indications are imprecise. Not everyone who follows a user sees all of their content. Similarly, everyone who sees their content might not be a follower.
The collaborative process of self-presentation and the difficulty in correctly identifying a specific audience on social media, calls for imagined audiences (Marwick & Boyd, 2010; Choi & Bazarova 2015). These audiences stem from the various ways in which Twitter is used: as a news source, social platform, diary, marketing channel, and broadcast medium (Marwick & Boyd, 2010). While traditional broadcast audiences are viewed as an unidentifiable mass who passively consumes institutional media, social media combines face-
7 to-face communication and elements of broadcast media. Social media, like broadcast media, collapse diverse social context into one, but in an interactive space where the consumers also act as amateur producers. While social media is by some viewed as a social space which encourages digital intimacy were relationships are maintained and nurtured, it is also a platform in which context collapse creates new social processes by which it’s users act (Marwick & Boyd, 2010).
The specific social environment of Twitter, in which communication about the stressor is taking place, whether defined narrowly in terms of close relationships or broadly in terms of social structure, heavily influences the studied coping process itself (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). In contrast with face-to-face interactions, tweeters disclosing their thoughts on working from home is driven by each individual’s imagined audience and the context of Twitter as a social space. It must be taken into account that tweeting is influenced by social processes like maintaining face or self-presentation in the midst of this crisis. However, this can in itself be seen as a part in the process of coping with the stressors of working from home.
Another aspect to consider when discussing the social context of Twitter is a socio-cultural one. Studies have found that those who partake in discussion and activism online have shown to be more highly educated and more interested in the topic at hand than the average user (Schneider & Carpenter, 2018). The culture and background of tweeters affect how and if they take part in online coping. Furthermore, whether an individual part-takes in online communal coping on Twitter is dependent on that individual’s access to technology. While contemporary time is seen as the most technologically inclusive era in history, not everyone has access to online social platforms.
While there are limitations of Twitter as a platform for inclusivity, connectivity, and social development, the advantages of studying communal coping in the social context of a platform such as Twitter are clear. These will be further discussed in the methodology section. In the context of this study, Twitter can be recognized as a means for users to connect with people in their field of work, who have the same interests or are in similar situations to themselves. The studied hashtag #workfromhome connects people who are all in the same situation, facing the challenges of working from home. It is mainly used as a means to share personal
8 experiences and create common meaning around the phenomena of involuntary remote work due to COVID-19, rather than to drive a cause or promote change.
This is the context for which this study of Twitters role in the communal coping process takes place – with its features, significance, advantages, and limitations.
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In this section, the main theoretical discussion surrounding the research problem will be presented. Furthermore, the theory and concepts that are used in the analysis of the findings will be made explicit.
3.1 Contexts for Coping: Critical Situations, Crises & Disasters According to Giddens (1984), the sense of trust in the continuity of reality and comfort in social reality amongst individuals relies on the specific connections between the day-to-day lives of the individuals and the social context of their daily routines. Routine is an essential component not only to the personality and well-being of the individual agent but is also vital to institutions of society, which in essence come to be through the reproduction of routine (Giddens, 1984, p. 60). Predictable routines and encounters are pillars of the ontological security and feeling of control involved in the foundation of day-to-day social life. The characteristics of these individual routines do not just happen but are rather made to happen through the reproduction of actions sustained by individuals in circumstances of co-presence. It is when these habitual modes of activity are hindered by external, uncontrollable circumstances that a “critical situation” arises (Giddens, 1984, p. 64).
By studying the element of routinization, we can explore the relationship between the basic security system inherent in social activity, such as the trust and autonomy of individuals in times of change. Furthermore, we can examine the anecdotal processes that are spontaneously created in day to day life, such as narrative tweeting about experiences to create collective meaning.
In line with Gidden’s (1984) proposed critical situations, Moos and Schaefer (1986) recognizes a crisis as a situation in which established social and personal identity is disrupted.
9 In such a crisis, coping processes that arise as normal problem-solving strategies to the upsetting events at hand are insufficient. The disruption of normality, as well as the insufficiency of normal problem-solving resources, are also elements of what the United Nations (UN) defines as a disaster. According to The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) a disaster is defined as “a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources” (The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction [UNISDR], 2007).
As Giddens suggests, this study explores the phenomenon of routinization by approaching what he defines as a “critical situation” that is evident in contemporary time. The many implications of COVID-19 has brought about a state which can be recognized as a critical situation, a crisis, and/or a disaster. This deadly and highly contagious virus has contributed to the drastic shattering and undermining of established modes of accustomed daily life on a global level.
3.2 Individual, Collective & Communal Coping
There is a large body of theoretical frameworks for studying coping, both from an individual and a collective perspective. These include a hefty list of stages, components, tasks, strategies, influences and purposes for coping, often with overlapping elements within the categories of each framework. Coping resources and responses have been recognized as a multi-dimensional set of behaviors and cognitions brought together to assist an individual in the management or toleration of demands brought forwards by the chronic or acute stressor at hand (Eckenrode, 1991). The list of these behaviors and cognitions is enormous and how these should be categorized has posed a great challenge to a researcher in the field (Eckenrode, 1991).
Indeed, the definition and nature of coping have been discussed vibrantly, but most scholars agree that it involves “conscious, purposive behaviors, or cognitions initiated in response to the experience of a chronically stressful situation or following the occurrence of a stressful life event” (Eckenrode, 1991. P. 1).
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For a long time, coping was studied exclusively from an individual perspective (Lyons, et. al., 1998). These early studies recognized coping as being either a situational or a personal process, in which the individual took part in strategies to cope with the stressor at hand on their own (Aldwin, 2007). However, coping research has come to recognize that the process of coping is in essence a social one, almost always conducted within a social context (Eckenrode, 1991; Lyons et. al., 1998; Aldwin, 2007). While it can be argued that individual coping efforts do take place, it is also widely accepted that these individual coping efforts in themselves are influenced by external factors such as the social environment of the individual (Moos & Schaefer, 1986). This is a common approach to coping, namely focusing on how individuals cope with a stressful event by making sense of the situation with a network of interpersonal relationships (Lyons, et. al., 1998). In other words, coping is closely tied to communication practices (Pennebaker & Harber, 1993). The social environment in which this communication about the stressor is taking place, whether defined narrowly in terms of close relationships or broadly in terms of social structure, heavily influences the coping process itself (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).
A popular framework for the assessment of coping efforts has been presented by Folkman and Lazarus (1984). They identified that both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies were used to deal with internal and external demands of coping with daily stressors. They mapped out 67 distinct responses which fall into 8 categories of coping: (1) confrontive coping (e.g., expressing anger), (2) distancing (e.g., making light of the situation), (3) self- controlling (e.g., keeping feelings to oneself), (4) seeking social support (e.g., talked to someone to find out more about the situation), (5) accepting responsibility (e.g., criticized or lectured oneself),(6) escape-avoidance (e.g., wished the situation would go away), (7) planful problem solving (e.g., making a plan of action and following it), (8) positive reappraisal (e.g., changed or grew as a person in a good way). They also found that coping efforts on the part of individuals are explicitly social in nature and that individuals will seek social support in the form of comfort or help when dealing with the stressor (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).
Other frameworks for the tasks and strategies involved in the process of coping are presented by Lyons et. al. (1998) and Moos and Schaefer (1986). Lyons et. al. (1998) argue that there are three main components that constitute the process of communal coping, namely a communal coping orientation, communication about the stressor, and cooperative action to
11 address the stressor. These components can be recognized in the five major adaptive tasks which individuals and communities engage in when facing a crisis, as proposed by Moos and Schaefer (1986). The five tasks include (1) establishing the meaning and understanding the personal significance of the situation, (2) confronting reality and responding to the requirements of the external situation, (3) sustaining relationships with family members and friends who may be helpful in resolving the crisis and its aftermath, (4) maintaining a reasonable emotional balance by managing upsetting feelings, and (5) preserving a satisfactory self-image and maintaining a sense of competence and mastery.
Alongside models and frameworks for the influences, stages, strategies, and tasks of coping explored in scholarly literature, the purpose of coping has also received much attention. Lyon et. al. (1998) approach provisions of communal coping from three perspectives: for coping with the stress, for maintenance and quality of relationships, and for the self. As will become evident in the results of this thesis, these purposes are relevant to the role Twitter plays in the communal coping process.
Lyons et. al. (1998) use the term communal coping rather than collective coping to describe the pooling of efforts and resources of several individuals to confront adversity. In the occurrence of stressful collective events such as war or natural disasters, where the lives of many are affected by the same stressor, joint efforts are required to effectively deal with the stressor. Lyons et. al. (1998) argue that while the distinction between individualistic and collectivistic functions of coping determines the degree to which the individual is focused on problem-solving for the self or the group, communal coping can be both individualistic and collectivistic. What distinguishes communal coping is the notion of sharing the weight of the stressors and joining together to cope with the problem (Lyons et. al., 1998).
At times it may be a requirement for individuals and groups to successfully confront the circumstances or/and it may be a process embedded in the social structure. The complex social dynamic and various coping processes that emerge in stressful situations call for recognition that the communal coping process may have disadvantages as well as advantages (Lyon, et. al., 1998).
In this study of the role of social media in communal coping with the common stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, a tentative approach to concepts and theories is
12 used. The definitions and recognized elements of coping as presented in this section were used to guide the research process. While all approaches to coping presented above were considered throughout the study, the frameworks for individual, collective, and communal coping that came to play the largest role in the final stages of the research were the ones presented by Moos and Schaefer (1986) and Lyons et. al. (1998). Their approaches to coping involve the recognition of the considerable synergy under which individual, collective, and communal coping take place. This approach and the frameworks which result in it provides guidance in identifying and exploring the patterns in the empirical data, as well as the meaning of those patterns in understanding the social processes taking place.
3.3 Humor & Coping
As will be elaborated upon in the results of this study, a common theme that became apparent within the studied data was the one of humor.
In 1979, Norman Cousins published an account of going through a serious disease and doing so through humor and laughter. Since then, much attention has been given to the importance of humor when it comes to both physical and psychological health (Martin et. al, 1993). As becomes clear in this section, humor has an outstanding significance in studies concerning coping with stress and difficult life situations.
How and why humor is a part of our lives is a broad area of research. Humor can have a large effect on the social outcome, as individual differences in humor preferences and interpretation can lead different groups of people to perceive the underlying, serious elements of the same joke in distinctly different ways (Simis-Wilkinson et. al., 2018). Peter McGraw, a leading humor theorist, has presented the idea that humor adheres to what he and his colleges refer to as the Benign Violations Theory. In his theory, humor challenges the status quo through a violation of social norms. Violations may include physical threats (e.g., a game of peek-a-boo), communication rules (e.g., sarcasm; puns), threats to identity (e.g., insult humor), logic (e.g., elephant jokes; absurdities), and social conventions (e.g., breaking a dress code). However, to find the “sweet spot” which makes something funny, the violation must be harmless enough to make up for the violation (McGraw, Williams, & Warren, 2013).
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Figure 1: The Benign Violations Theory (McGraw & Warner, 2015)
In an overview of three studies concerning humor and social processes such as responding to difficult life events, Martin et. al (1993) found that humor has beneficial effects on how we deal with problems, as it allows us to distance ourselves from them, take them less seriously, and in doing so experience them as less distressing and threatening (Martin et. al, 1993). As will become in clear in the analysis, online humor relies heavily on that it allows for discussion of topics that might without humor be taboo or difficult to approach.
In a more specific and recent context, Agnieszka Kruczek, & Małgorzata Anna Basińska (2018) found that humor coping with work-related stress somewhat mediates the relationship between a sense of stress at work and job satisfaction. Participants who coped partially through humor were associated with less tension at work and greater job satisfaction. This relates heavily to the study at hand, as one a major stressor of working from home will prove to be the maintaining of a work-life-balance.
These studies above have interesting implications for coping research, as it implies that humor can be beneficial in both individual but also collective and communal coping processes. These notions go hand in hand with frameworks for coping as discussed in the section on coping. For instance, the five coping tasks proposed by Moos and Schaefer (1986) include establishing meaning about the critical situation, confronting reality, sustaining
14 relationships, managing upset feelings, and preserving a satisfactory self-image. Based in the studies presented above, these tasks may be easier for the individual to engage in if done while using humor. In an era where individuals often publicly air their grievances through complaining and retelling negative experiences on social media platforms, it becomes relevant to further explore what role humor has in the online coping processes taking place.
4. LITERATURE REVIEW
In the following section, the literature review of previous studies will be presented. It includes studies concerning online coping which fall in the overlapping fields of media and communication studies on the one hand and coping research on the other. Finally, the importance of these prior studies will be acknowledged and an attempt to localize this thesis within the literature will be made.
4.1 Media Studies and Coping Research
Media has previously received a great deal of attention for its role in a broad variety of social processes, not least for its role in the management of natural disasters and crises. Both social media and mass media communication have been recognized as essential tools for informing, preparing, and monitoring disasters during and throughout crises (Perez-Lugo M, 2004; Tandoc & Takahashi, 2017). A variety of these studies concerning social media and crises take a top-down approach in which social media is seen as a means for organizational coordination, recovery efforts, public relation purposes, and information dissemination (Veil et al., 2011; Sutton, 2012; Jin et al., 2014; Binder, 2012; Hughes and Palen, 2009). Studies of traditional forms of media and communication further enhance the focus on the informational functions of media, rather than the more interactive, bottom-up relief functions which can be facilitated by social platforms (Perez-Lugo, 2004).
More recently, however, social media has been studied as a tool used by victims of a variety of crises for coping with stressors caused by the critical situation, most evidently when other forms of emotional support are lacking. This shift to studying online coping efforts has followed a line of the theory which claims that coping with critical situations is in its essence
15 a social process, calling for an approach which views coping as collective as well as individual (Eckenrode, 1991; Lyons et. al., 1998; Aldwin, 2007).
Demonstrating the need for social orientation and the importance of communication in the process of coping, Pennebaker and Harber (1993) found that there are three communicative stages of coping which take place on social media, tested in the aftermath of natural disasters. Firstly, they identified the emergency phase in which individuals think and communicate about the stressful experience. Secondly, they present the inhibition stage in which communication about experiences decreases but the individuals continue to think about the stressor. Thirdly, the adaptive phase occurs, in which individuals neither speak nor think of their stressful experiences.
In his study on the actual and potential use of social media in an emergency, disaster, and crisis situations, Alexander (2014) identified seven potential uses in disaster risk reduction and response: (1) Listening function, (2) monitoring the situation, (3) integration with emergency plans, (4) crowdsourcing and collaborative development, (5) creating social cohesion, (6) furtherance of causes, and (7) research. This list has communicative and social elements that can be related to frameworks for individual, collective, and communal coping. For example, the use of crowdsourcing and collaborative development relates closely to the expansion of resources and capacity for dealing with a common stressor which in itself is a purpose for communal coping (Lyons, et. al., 1998).
Social media has furthermore been used more actively by victims of natural disaster, to mobilize in the face of the crisis and collectively cope with the outcomes. In their study on how social media platforms, with their core strengths of information exchange and promotion of connectedness, were able to facilitate a source of psychological first aid in the early stages of natural disasters in Australia and New Zealand, Taylor et. al. (2012) found that “people reported feeling a sense of connectedness and usefulness, felt supported by others and felt encouraged by the help and support being given to people” through social media in the aftermath of the disasters (Taylor et al., 2012. P. 25). Similarly, Tandoc and Takahashi (2017) found that social media facilitated collective coping strategies to take place in the immediate aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Here, Facebook facilitated a platform for online collective coping. Victims of the disaster initially connected with each other to inform that they were okay and had survived, secondly confronted and co-
16 constructed the reality of the disaster, and thereafter used sharing their narratives on social media as a means to memorialize their experiences and move on (Tandoc & Takahashi, 2017).
Brummette and Fussel Sisco (2015) take another perspective on the need for understanding online coping, pressing on the importance of crisis managers to understand and assess the emotional state of the stakeholders involved when dealing with a crisis. In their study, they explore the use of Twitter as a means of coping with emotions after the uncontrollable crisis of a shooting at Virginia Tech University (Brummette & Fussel Sisco, 2015). Their study revealed that stakeholders indeed turned to Twitter to cope with the crises at hand, suggesting that organizations going through a crisis can turn to social media to understand and communicate with stakeholders more efficiently in times of need.
In addition to the growing body of research concerning collective coping online, there is also an increased related focus on the ability to identify offline coping strategies through online platforms such as social media. In her analysis of 3,200 tweets using LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), Golbeck (2016) showed that an individual’s coping styles can be inferred through analysis of their Twitter accounts. By identifying if an individual uses adaptive or maladaptive strategies to cope with difficulties, health professionals may have an advantage in their response to the patients once they seek help.
In a more specific context, Schneider and Carpenter (2018) examined #MeToo tweets in the initial phase of the global activist movement. Driven by the hashtag, the study examined descriptions of different types of experiences, self-reported coping, and the social reactions of others to the tweets. Their findings include indications that survivors of sexual harassment who disclosed their experiences online were met with a majority of support and positive social reaction. Their findings also pointed towards differentiation between the coping strategies which victims have claimed to use in prior research and the coping strategies which were self-disclosed within the online data. Schneider and Carpenter (2018) call for a reframing of existing coping typologies to include online interactions as a cognitive engagement strategy, arguing that studying coping strategies online allows for a more inclusive approach to data than work-place surveys or interviews have (Schneider & Carpenter, 2018). The social environment in which coping takes place is to some extent reflected on social media platforms as well. It can be argued that studies like the one above,
17 considering the emergence of social media platforms as outlets for social support and disclosure, have provided new dimensions within the scope of coping opportunities.
While many of the studies above point towards the benefits of online coping strategies, studies on the use of social media in critical situations also present a darker side to the attempt of online coping (Alexander, 2014). As mentioned above, coping is not always a decision actively made, and the process is rarely under closely controlled circumstances. Social media represents an outlet that can expand the social network and support system of an individual, but disclosure of personal accounts can also invite backlash which may harm the coping process as a whole (Schneider & Carpenter, 2018). Furthermore, issues such as propaganda, the spread of false information, and political as well as commercial purposes can thwart a potential online coping process (Alexander, 2014). This darker side of social media in times of crisis further enhances the importance of studies in the area of online coping.
4.2 Localization of Thesis within the Literature & Implications
As an empirical study on the role of social media in communal coping, this thesis localizes itself in the field of media and communication studies by recognizing that a social process within a very specific context has come to move online to some extent.
Prior research on the role of media in critical situations, disaster, and crises focus on top- down approaches to uses of media in such situations, the use of traditional media in times of crisis, and the role of social media in collective coping when communities are faced with the common stressor of a local natural disaster. Additionally, studies in the area have further recognized the possibilities of identifying certain coping styles and strategies through the analysis of social media content. These prior studies have opened up the space for the approach in this study to take place, having laid the groundwork in recognizing that coping processes are indeed taking place online. This thesis studies how individuals are coping with a new reality in which every day routines take on unfamiliar shapes and present new problems, by turning to a part of their life that has not been disrupted by the pandemic – social media usage.
18 This study expands the reach of the area of online coping research by exploring the process of communal coping taking place on Twitter in the context of COVID-19. In this context the network of individuals connected through the common stressor of working from home in a pandemic is unbound by geographical barriers and somewhat by cultural barriers, allowing for an inclusive approach. Simultaneously, each individual within the network is more or less physically isolated from their usual routines and social interaction, which perhaps otherwise facilitate offline platforms for communal coping. The indication that communal coping tends to take place online as well as offline, as presented in the literature above, allows this analysis to focus on how Twitter in particular is facilitating online coping with a common stressor of working from home during COVID-19.
With the changing nature of work and the ongoing uncertainty concerning the implications of COVID-19, the direction of this thesis and its findings may assist organizations and stakeholders alike in understanding the impact of involuntary remote work on individuals. An understanding of the stressors which involuntary remote work creates could help organizations respond to these stressors with possible solutions and help strengthen the coping process overall. The notion that tweeters reach out to their network in times of need may also allow for an understanding that social workspaces are needed online if offline opportunities are diminished. Facilitation of such online spaces may present opportunities for a stronger coping process, on the behalf of individuals, but may also come to be a business or growth strategy if implemented correctly. Furthermore, this study hopes to deepen our understanding of the role which social media plays in the social process of coping and opens up for further research within the area.
5. METHODOLOGY
Guided by sensitizing concepts from the theoretical framework, the research process included several stages of inductively and deductively coding the body of data. A hermeneutic approach was used in approaching the social world. By taking cognitive ownership of the data while remaining sensitive to methods of “good qualitative thinking” (Saldaña, 2011), an intimidate familiarity with the empirical data may assist in the recognition of details and new insights about the meaning of these details, which provides background and support for the analysis. In the following section, the details of the methodology will be addressed.
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5.1 Hermeneutic Approach
The nature of this thesis, with its purpose of better understanding the social process of online communal coping, adopts a hermeneutic approach to research. The task is to engage in the interpretation of texts in the form of tweets for a deeper understanding of human behavior and communication, rather than find casual explanation and prediction, which makes a hermeneutic approach reasonable (Mills & Wiebe, 2010). From the perspective of early hermeneutic scholars, to understand anything at all involves interpretation. This prompts difficulties when approaching research as this implies that interpretation happens before understanding, which makes any research subjective and difficult to take on. In answer to issues of interpretation and understanding, “the hermeneutic circle” has been introduced. This concept is relevant to this study, as it defines the core of the methodology through which the research process takes place and evolves.
The hermeneutic circle prompts that “the parts can only be understood from an understanding of the whole but that the whole can only be understood from an understanding of the parts” (Schmidt, 2014. p. 4). Each piece of data in the body, namely each tweet, could in itself be interpreted through various modes of analysis. For instance, in-depth analysis of both the linguistics and the potential intentions and underlying meanings of each tweet could be performed. This, however, would not meet the ends of this study. The aim is rather to see the major patterns that are evident in the body of data as a whole (1500 Tweets). While an understanding and brief analysis of each tweet is needed, the results are based on analysis of the body as a whole which in the end makes up the results (as seen below).
“The traditional view of ‘the scientific method’ is that everything should be done to eliminate researchers’ ‘subjective’ influences” (Blaikie and Priest, 2017, p. 17). All proposed methodological paradigms aim to do just this have their explicit strengths and critiqued limitations. At times, the strengths of a paradigm proposed by one scholar, are the same as the limitations of that paradigm as proposed by another (Blaikie and Priest, 2017).
To meet the limitations of any approach to the social world, it is important to make clear the epistemological assumptions. How can we access the truths in the world and how is it done in
20 this study? 19th-century scholar Wilhelm Dilthey’s approach to understanding and interpreting human behavior and communication further supports the methods used in this research. He states that humans have an inner emotional and mental life, unlike objects (Mills & Wiebe, 2010). As researchers we do not have the tools to access these directly, so we must study them through empirical manifestations. This makes an approach that is very different to the natural science approach relevant.
In interpreting the data available, it is kept in mind that the author’s mindset as well as the cultural context the author is in has an impact on the interpretation process at hand. This is in answer to the critique of that hermeneutics like many approaches to social science involves a false quest for objectivity. Instead of eliminating subjective input, the researcher must attempt to be aware of prejudices, thereby making them productive. “The productive prejudices that foster should be cultivated in the dialectical relationship” (Mills & Wiebe, 2010. P. 436). All the while, “intentional fallacy” must be avoided as proposed by Jürgen Habermas (Mills & Wiebe, 2010). While the standpoint and intentions of the author cannot always be made explicit, as the author might not self be aware of these, keeping these in mind is of essence in combating the faults of the chosen hermeneutic approach. Furthermore, by using sensitizing concepts proposed by prior scholars, a researcher can make their standpoint and background understanding of the topic more explicit still.
5.2 The Role of Theory & Concepts
In a further effort to interpret and understand the context of the social world in which this thesis takes place, the role of concepts and theory must be expanded upon. While stressing the importance of identifying and clarifying concepts to connect theory with the empirical world which is being studied, a tentative approach to such concepts is relevant to the production of empirical evidence and thought. Blumer (1954) proposes that “thoughtful study shows conclusively that the concepts of our discipline are fundamentally sensitizing instruments” (Blumer, 1954. P. 7), putting these “sensitizing concepts” in contrast with definite concepts within theory. This approach to empirical instances allows the researcher a general sense of guidance and reference, rather than providing clearly specified benchmarks and definitions which would allow the researcher to move directly towards the relevant
21 content being studied. Sensitizing concepts simply gives the researcher a suggested direction along which to look in their research.
Blumer (1954) does in no way attempt to disregard the importance of clearly identified concepts but stresses the importance of maintaining a tentative manner in which researchers use these concepts in approaching the empirical world. In research within the field of social science, where the empirical world may be described as the natural social world of every-day experiences, we must accept that the definite concepts we apply to empirical instances may look very different in another context (Blumer, 1954).
In studying the role of social media in communal coping with a globally common stressor of a recognized critical situation, placed in the very specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic, theory and concepts have been used in this proposed sensitizing manner. Sensitizing concepts guided the research process and analysis, bringing these instances closer in line with what the empirical study revealed. In other words, the role of theory and concepts in this study assisted in attempting to bring the research process in closer contact with the natural social world which was being studied.
5.3 Qualitative & Quantitative Content Analysis
Content analysis in itself is a methodologically explicit way of analyzing images or texts and can involve quantitative and qualitative procedures. Due to the nature of the analyzed body of data, as well as the research question at hand, both qualitative and quantitative analysis were used in this thesis.
The purpose of this thesis is to answer the main research question of how Twitter is being used as a platform for online communal coping with the common stressor of involuntary teleworking from home during a pandemic. As a content analysis designed to describe messages and answer the question of how a social process is taking place online, a qualitative approach was needed (Riff, Lacy & Fico, 2013; Marwick, 2014). Qualitative content analysis looks for the ‘latent content’ in a text or image that primarily has symbolic or underlying meanings that can be systematically coded for (Hand, 2017). In qualitative research, it is common to analyze and reflect on the data from the point of collection and throughout the
22 project, as qualitative design, data collection, and fieldwork are most often evolutionary and emergent processes (Saldaña, 2011).
While the main method used to reach the aims of this study and answer the research questions was qualitative content analysis, early elements of quantitative analysis were used to identify large-scale patterns and get to know the initial dataset. Quantitative analysis was used both manually and with queries performed by the software Nvivo. Firstly, quantitative coding was performed through a query to show what words were the most commonly used besides the central hashtag #workfromhome, to identify large-scale numeric patterns such as word count and related hashtags. Thereafter, each phase of coding inherently included quantitative elements, as the numeric values for each code were used to identify large-scale patterns and interrelationships in the dataset. The functional elements of Twitter which allows users to share pictures, videos, and short clips called GIFs further called for taking visual content into account when qualitatively analyzing the data.
5.4 Data Collection, Logics of Inquiry & Coding Process
The data collection process began in mid-April. The initial dataset was gathered using NCapture, a Chrome browser add-on that saves content via the Twitter API, collecting tweets including the hashtag #workfromhome. By using the search function of Twitter, the #workfromhomepage was found and data was collected from the page three days backward on two occasions. The first saved dataset was taken from Tuesday 14th of April and captured data from Sunday 12th of April and Monday 13th of April along with data from the day of capture. The second NCapture was put into motion on Friday 24th of April and included data from that day along with Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd of April.
These dates were chosen for several reasons. Firstly, during these two weeks in mid-April most of the world had been in lockdown and hence had been working from home for a few weeks. Each day of the week is reasonably included, but to get data from a longer period, the days were spread over two weeks. This said, there are no comparisons between days or over time in the analysis. Only the data from weekdays (Monday- Friday) were included in the final dataset for analysis.
23 The initial dataset consisted of 31 635 tweets. After a query was performed to remove retweets the dataset consisted of 17 876 tweets, 8086 tweets from the first week, and 9790 tweets from the second week.
Coding is the assigning of codes to raw data. This allows a researcher to engage in data simplification and reduction (DeCuir-Gunby, Marshall & McCulloch, 2011). An introductory overview of the data revealed that a very large amount of the data was marketing content, which would not serve the purpose of the analysis. Hence, the first manual coding process began on an exclude/include basis. Tweets to be included in the analysis were tweets by private users where most of the written text was in English. Excluded were the tweets posted by organizations or for marketing, as well as tweets that were in other languages than English.
During this phase cognitive ownership of the data was being taken, as proposed by Saldaña (2011). By reading and rereading the corpus an intimate familiarity was gained with the dataset. Significant details as well as new insights about their meanings grew through early and continuous work with the data. In this initial phase of coding, patterns and relationships began taking form through the process.
Once 1500 tweets that fit the inclusion criteria and were spaced out evenly over the five chosen weekdays of the timeframe had been separated, the first quantitative element took place. A word frequency query was run in order to see what words were most frequently used along with the central hashtag #workfromhome, in order to see larger initial patterns in the data. As will become clear in the analysis, each phase of coding revealed quantitative elements which helped distinguish large patterns which applied to many tweets from the less reoccurring pattern.
By continuously exploring the data meanwhile returning to and introducing new literature in this initial phase of coding, 24 patterns were recognized to start with, which thereafter were placed into four clusters. These codes and clustered were recognized through an inductive logic of inquiry in the first stage of the research. Induction can be defined as “what we explore and infer to be transferable from the particular to the general, based on an examination of the evidence and an accumulation of knowledge.” (Saldaña, 2011. P.93)
24 As expected, these codes and their clusters came to change and reshape during the second phase of coding which will be overviewed below. A circular process of coding was utilized, in the manner presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Circular process of coding (DeCuir-Gunby, Marshall & McCulloch, 2011. P. 139)
The second phase of coding consisted of manual process coding, where gerunds (ing-words) were used to capture the action taken by each tweeter. The gerunds were not applied to actions described in the tweet, but to what the user was doing by tweeting. Common for all codes were that the actions taken were forms of communication, actions requiring (or perhaps expecting) to be seen, understood, and possibly answered to by other users. These communicative words included: Expressing, using (e.g. humor), showing, sharing, looking, offering, asking, connecting, discussing, and placing (e.g. blame and responsibility).
The initial codes were placed into clusters, depending on the purpose this particular communication (coping) could be interpreted to have. These clusters of purpose were guided, but not limited, to notions of communal coping recognized in the literature review. As mentioned above, a sensitized approach to concepts included in the literature was held. The initial clusters included (1) users communicating about the stressor and what it means for them (expressing), (2) sharing “individual” coping efforts (sharing, using humor, showing,
25 looking forwards) , and (3) evident communal coping actions (asking, connecting, discussing, placing/claiming blame/ responsibility). In this phase of coding an inductive and retroductive approach was utilized in both shaping the codebook and coding the data. As Murphy (2017) put forwards, the notion of retroductive research allows the researchers to probe the data regularly with some focus on what they are looking for, rather than using solely an inductive approach. In this way, the qualitative approach to the Twitter data maintained a clear focus through categorization and solid coding schemes, while simultaneously being open to reflexive amendment as the analysis developed.
After four-fifths of the data had been coded, there was a setback due to data loss. The NVivo file bounced back to an earlier version, in which no manual coding had been performed. While this delayed the coding process, it also allowed for a reevaluation of the codes and clusters. At that point, the data was very familiar, smaller patterns had been identified against broader ones. A decision was made to make the most out of the situation and turn the setback into a third phase of coding with refined codes and clusters. After an extensive overview of the literature, as well as notes and analytical memos, a new and more detailed codebook, was created. This would come to be the final codebook and this third phase of process coding would be driven by a deductive logic of inquiry (for full Codebook, see Appendix 1).
Throughout the third phase of coding, rigorous writing of analytical memos took place. As proposed by Saldaña (2011), the codes and clusters were viewed as separate puzzle pieces which through their integration in the form of analytical memos would come to assemble a more complete picture. By keeping the main research question in mind, continuously revisiting literature and maintaining an analytical and open mindset, these analytical memos came to be.
By taking both the syntagmatic dimension and the paradigmatic dimension into account, underlying patterns, structures, and interrelationships can be tentatively explored in the surface manifestations within the empirical data at hand. Ultimately, tentative conclusions are drawn to answer the central research question of the study: How is Twitter being used as a platform for online communal coping with the common stressor of involuntary teleworking from home during a pandemic?
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5.5 Limitations
Due to the methodological approach, based on “good analytical thinking” and iterative processes of coding and interpretations led by sensitizing concepts, the replicability of the research process is questionable. While a sensitized approach to concepts and theory allows for broader opportunities for coming across new and surprising findings, it also allows for a more biased interpretation. In answer to these limitations, the methodology section includes an extensive overview of strategies implemented to combat bias and lack of replicability. Furthermore, a detailed codebook can be found in Appendix 1 to back the research performed.
Additional to the discussion of the replicability of this thesis and its findings are the contextual limitations. The use of Twitter as a platform as well as the focus on the hashtag #workfromhome frames the findings.
Conclusions drawn from the study of Twitter data must be placed in the contextual frames of contemporary time, place, social groups, language, and audience collapse which might drive the explicit trends and inherent motives that can be understood from the dataset. It should be acknowledged that the use of the label “tweeter”, which in general could refer to anyone who posts tweets to Twitter, is limited in the analysis of this study. Here the label “tweeter” does not apply to any or all tweeters, but to tweeters who post on Twitter in English and include the hashtag #workfromhome in their post. While individual information on the tweeters behind the analyzed tweets reaches beyond the scope of the analysis, a few assumptions can be made about them. Firstly, they have access to technology in order to post on Twitter. Secondly, most of them are working from home, having had the privilege of not losing their job due to the pandemic. Thirdly, while English is spoken by many who or not native to primarily English-speaking countries, we can assume that most tweets included in the data come from tweeters whose native language is English. This is strengthened by the fact that three out of the four top countries in which Twitter is used the very most have English as one of their national languages (the US, India, and the United Kingdom) (Statista, 2020). This limited application of the label “tweeter” affects the scope for which the findings of this study can be applied.
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This said, there are also several advantages to the choice of Twitter in this study. Twitter’s straightforward approach to micro-blogging in which users primarily share short pieces of text, the functions of discussing issues in various threads, and the broad use of hashtags for tip specific reach served this particular study of online communal coping well. Furthermore, with advanced search opportunities, back-end functions such as Twitter Developer and the Twitter API, Twitter can be considered to be relatively research-friendly. Additionally, prior studies have found that voluntarily shared coping experiences on social media differ from those in other forms of data (Schneider & Carpenter, 2019). Hence, the collected tweets hashtagged with #workfromhome may in terms of content be a more inclusive dataset to study than would be, for instance, data from surveys or interviews. Furthermore, the collected tweets represent a broad demographic which breaks both geographical and socio-cultural boundaries, allowing for an international perspective.
Similarly, the choice of the hashtag #workfromhome and the limitations of this choice need to be acknowledged. The hashtag #workfromhome has not been recognized as an activist movement, which one could argue makes the topic a less controversial one and is perhaps therefore a relatable discussion which a larger number of users could partake in. However, during the months of lock-down due to COVID-19, several seemingly similarly used hashtags were trending on the social platform Twitter. These included hashtags concerning quarantine such as #quarentineandchill and #stayathome. Others applied to social challenges such as #showmeyourhomeoffice. There were also variations of the chosen hashtag #workfromhome such as #workingfromhome. If the active form (working) of the hashtag would have been used instead of the imperative form (work), the results may have looked very different. As will be presented in the results section, the hashtag was not only used by those who actually were working from home but was also used in discussions about the phenomena of remote work, as well as by those searching for jobs to do online. Further research including various hashtags must be performed for conclusions on whether the communal coping process differs or looks the same across different hashtags.
If another platform and another hashtag on the topic of remote work would be studied during another period in time, the findings may look very different. Similarly, if the study would be limited to include users from a specific geographic location, focused on another language
28 than English, or concerned a certain age-group of the users, the study may also yield a different outcome. Further research is needed if a comparison is to be made.
The overall specific context in which this study takes place is arguably very unique. The rapid shift to an assumed to be temporary new digital society and the impact COVID-19 has had on the global workforce is unseen of. However, grounded in theory about social media and coping, the results of this study suggest that further research of online communal coping is necessary. It calls for a broader understanding of the shifts in coping as a social process in relation to communication practices, as well as the role of social media in society as a whole. While the method and findings of this thesis are contextual, its findings may direct further similar research within other contexts all the same.
5.6 Ethical Implications
Visual and textual social media data is routinely produced and circulated. Additionally, it is also reflected upon, negotiated, deleted, and analyzed by those producing it in assumed to be diverse ways. This in turn raises novel ethical questions about the consent, publicness, and proper use of found online materials (Hand, 2012). While the methods, findings, and implications of this study can be found innocent, cases in which voluntarily shared content by social media users has been used unethically (Hinds, Joinson & Williams, 2020).
The data collected and analyzed in this thesis was produced and shared by users who have made their accounts and content public on Twitter. However, with the theory of imagined audiences in mind as presented by Marwick and Boyd (2010), it cannot be assumed that tweeters are actively aware of how the public content they share online is being used by researchers and other interested parties. By systematically downloading, coding, analyzing, and publishing public tweets, the use of the tweets can be assumed to far beyond the scope of how the tweeters intended their tweets to be used. To address this, usernames were not shared throughout the thesis and in the accompanying appendixes in order to maintain tweeter anonymity.
29 Additionally, in the text where the main analysis is performed, only text is presented as examples. Pictures by and of tweeters are included only in the appendix. Additionally, careful consideration was taken to not show sensitive content or include pictures that could cause harm to the users. In line with ethics concerning republication of social media posts, the content collected via Twitter and thereafter shared as examples in this thesis has not been altered or modified in any way.
6. RESULTS
In the following section, results from both qualitative and quantitative analyses will be presented.
Before entering into the findings of this study, it is important to recognize that the codes and clusters used are in no way exclusive. Due to the multiple elements, a tweet may include (e.g. text, emoticons, mentions, hashtags, pictures, videos, and curated content) and the multiple messages one piece of data may hold, very few of the tweets were placed exclusively to one code. Hence, the overview of the qualitative results of this study aim not do define numeric trends or with precision define the codes and clusters used. Instead, this part of the results is a flow of observation, patterns and interrelations between the various pieces of data, which aims to answer the main research question at hand: How is Twitter being used as a platform for online communal coping with the common stressor of involuntary teleworking from home during a pandemic?
Firstly, the three main clusters of patterns and interrelationships which illustrate how communal coping is taking place online are presented. These include (1) communal coping orientation, (2) communication about the stressor and (3) cooperative action. Secondly, the main topics of work-life balance, family, and pets are elaborated on to answer the research question. Throughout the presentation of results, examples from the data will be provided to underline the findings.
30 6.1 Communal Coping Orientation
As a component in Lyons et. al. (1998) communal coping framework, communal coping orientation is the process in which the need for communal coping is recognized. At least someone involved must recognize that joining together to deal with the stressor is expected or necessary. The #workfromhome hashtag is very much used for this purpose, which is outstandingly clear for the codes within the cluster of Communal Coping Orientation. The three main trends within this cluster were to connect with others, discuss believed developments concerning the critical situation which may have an impact on stressors, as well as placing blame on others for the stressors or acknowledging individual and collective responsibility in dealing with the stressors related to working from home during a pandemic. These functions for tweeting clarify the need for taking or avoiding action to overcome the adversity which people are facing together while separated from each other.
Communal coping can happen with the conscious or unconscious actions of a network (Lyons et. al.,1998). One pattern within the dataset was the topic of sticking together in order to fight the virus and make it through working from home. Hashtags such as #inthistogether and sentences like “While we work from home together…”, as well as tips to others or asking for help shows that people are aware that they have a community which may help them deal with the stressors they face. These outwards-oriented users manifest the “togetherness” and interconnection which constitutes communal coping.
The technical functions of Twitter such as retweeting, sharing others’ content, mentioning, and tagging other users add to the social aspect of Tweeting. As seen in Figure 3 below, many tweets hashtagged with #workfromhome also included elements of interaction with other users. The use of the hashtag #workfromhome together with the tagging of other users shows the connectivity tweeters have concerning the topic. Social challenges for work-from- homers were given and responded to, tweeters asked to see each other’s home offices, and discussions about developments or responsibilities were started. This directed interaction shows a need for communal orientation around the stressors and issues at hand. Furthermore, by connecting directly with others in public twitter posts, the tweeter is to some extent fulfilling the coping aspect of maintaining the quality of relationships with others as well as
31 showing off their social connections to a perceived audience which are recognized as purposes for coping.
Figure 3: 100 Most used words in Tweets with #workfromhome A great number of tweeters seemed to claim individual or collective responsibility for coping with both the stressors of working from home and in the situation of the pandemic overall. Common hashtags within the data such as #apartnotalone and #inthistogether showed that users saw themselves as part of a bigger force for solving the issues at hand. Similarly, two of the most commonly used hashtags along with #workfromhome were #stayhome and #staysafe. These two were in the top 100 words used overall within the data. These hashtags encourage people to take responsibility in this global crisis, acknowledging that the tweeter using the hashtags stands behind the need for collective action. It shows where the tweeter stands on the matter. According to Lazarus (1984), claiming responsibility in a critical situation is an explicit response to coping within a social network of individuals. Below is another example of how users expressed shared responsibility of coping with the stressors at hand:
32 This said, not all tweets concerning who is to be responsible or take action were to the self. Some took on more of a confrontive approach, an approach also recognized by Folkman and Lazarus (1984). A smaller, yet significant, number of tweets were directed towards holding others accountable. Governments, organizations, internet providers, executives and managers, journalists, other individuals, and the media were all held accountable for stressors connected to working from home. Neighbors, family members, and co-workers were also at times named as responsible for specific stressors perceived by the tweeter. Similarly, other tweeters simply expressed that their responsibility in the face of the crisis was hindered by an inability to act or change the situation with their own resources.
Both the patterns of connecting with other users and the claiming responsibility/blaming others were closely related to the discussion about how the pandemic, lockdown, and related issues would develop.
By taking part in discussions, as well as sharing opinions or thoughts on how the situation will evolve and what will need to be done, tweeters acknowledge the need for communal action to address the critical situation.
33 6.2 Communication About the Stressor
The most common pattern in the dataset of tweets hashtagged #workfromhome from the set timeframe was the act of communicating about the stressor. Most frameworks for studying individual, collective and communal coping alike agree upon that communication concerning details of the circumstances and the meaning of the critical situation for each individual are essential to the coping process (Lyons, et.al., 1998; Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Pennebaker and Harber, 1993; Moos and Schaefer, 1986). By using the hashtag #workfromhome tweeters partook in the meaning creation of the critical situation of involuntarily working from home during a pandemic.
Upon entering the social platform Twitter, there is a bar in the top of the page asking the user “What’s happening?”. Sharing daily events, routines, thoughts, and opinions through text, emoticons, pictures, videos, and the sharing of others’ social media content is not isolated to critical situations in which communal coping takes place. This said the analyzed tweets in the dataset re-enforced that these functions offer an easy social network for communal coping to take place. An outstanding number of tweets in the dataset included notions of communication about what working from home during a pandemic means for them individually. The act of posting about it, participating in the ongoing discussion, and reaching an imagined audience, shows the need for this particular step in the coping process. It shows how communal coping is happening online.
Communication about the stressors at hand was most prominent amongst the tweets in which two specific communicational actions were taken by the tweeters. These included tweets in which the user either (1) expressed what the “new normal” entails for them, and/or (2) expressed a practical or emotional difficulty they were experiencing with the situation of working from home during a pandemic.
6.2.1 Defining the new normal
Tweeters posted on twitter to share what their “new normal” entailed. While other actions and messages were often included in the tweet at the same time, the element of sharing new daily routines and everyday events is one that is typical to Twitter and was the code that
34 applied to most of the data. If coping efforts are to be shared, the action of sharing details about the stressors and discussing the individual impact of the critical situation is critical. It became clear also in the analysis of the data, without this descriptive element of what the stressor is, there would be little room for other coping processes to take place online.
With the pandemic placing the world in lockdown and whole societies forced to stay inside, it was expected that the changes in routines and lifestyle would change drastically. Much of the tweets shared with the #workfromhome hashtag concerned the new manner in which work, schedules, tasks, norms, and rules have changed with remote work.
A major theme was the new manner in which meetings took place during the work from home period – through online platforms like Zoom or Google Meet. With this new way of having meetings in which everyone participates from their homes, tweeters communicated about the absurdity of the merging of the work-life and the home-life. Commenting on co- workers’ home décor, having their “new co-workers” (children, pets, and significant others) barging in on the meeting, and being in a meeting without pants on are examples of this merging.
Similarly, users often shared their new workspace at home, whether this be in a home office, in a child’s Batman-themed bedroom, or the car on the driveway. More often than not, tweeters expressed that they were hard at work from their homes, even though their Twitter activity might suggest otherwise. However, doing other things while working, such as cleaning windows, cuddling with pets, watching Netflix, drinking alcohol, and taking care of children were also often shared by tweeters.
35
An analysis of the Tweets hashtagged #workfromhome clarifies that the critical situation of involuntary working from home does more than changing the nature in which users work. Stressors related to everyday personal routines as well as the added stress of working and living through a pandemic was heavily communicated by the tweeters. This emphasizes Giddens (1984) theory of routinization. Simple things like getting up at a certain time, getting ready by showering and putting on clothes for the day, working out, and getting haircuts were no longer part of the normal routine for many individuals. The working hours of the day were blurred for many, some claiming not to have a schedule at all. This was partly due to distractions such as children in need of homeschooling, cats stepping on the keyboard or dogs wanting walks, as well as the lack of focus due to undefined workspace or time. The merging of work-time and -space with home-time and -space was clearly expressed here as well.
Another pattern that applied to a smaller amount of the data was using the hashtag #workfromhome without explicitly communicating about the topic. When looking into these posts, they seemed to be regular routine posts which were very similar to the posts the user would share otherwise as well. They included selfies, food posts, humorous posts that have little to do with working from home, and posts of creative work results. While these tweets did not directly address the topic of working from home, the fact that these were posted with
36 the hashtag #workfromhome shows that the users want to take part in the discussion. By using the hashtag #workfromhome on posts which users would post even without working from home in a pandemic, they are maintaining face and restoring the routine of tweeting in the midst of change.
6.2.2 Expressing practical & emotional difficulty
As mentioned above, the tweets coded into the particular group of Communicating About the Stressor were rarely exclusively defining the “new normal”. There were strong interrelationships between communication about the stressors and codes within the each of three clusters. Even within the cluster of Communicating About the Stressor, there were strong interrelationships. Some posts simply communicated about the significant situation without obvious explicit sentiment, others shared the difficulty of the new routines or lack thereof which for them makes it a critical situation.
Expressing practical difficulty was a dominant pattern. Having to work from home, without the proper equipment and space an office might provide, was something many struggled with. Pain and discomfort from sitting at the kitchen table, technological issues, and having to share a workspace with significant others, and in some cases, children were common practical stressors that related to working from home.
Other difficulties involved the new relationship remote workers were expected to have with their co-workers and employers. Social boundaries reshaped as co-workers now saw into each other’s homes, voluntarily or involuntarily met each other’s spouses, and failed to follow the social rules of videoconferencing. While many claimed to be in daily contact with their co-workers, expressions of missing face-to-face interaction with co-workers and clients
37 were common. All the while, they expressed feeling overwhelmed by new practical tasks such as having to homeschool children or take care of needy pets during work hours.
Emotional difficulties were often but not exclusively expressed with practical difficulties. As the remote workers lacked proper equipment, were having to share a home with family, and experienced the merging of home-space and workspace, distractions were many and some expressed not getting much done throughout the workdays. Some posted that they were even working longer hours than when they had been in the office.
Stress, anxiety, loneliness, and tiredness were key themes in the communication about the stressors. Often humorously, tweeters expressed that their time orientation was off. Without set routines, individuals expressed that they did not know what time, day, or even month they were in. The upending of other basic daily routines such as dressing and getting haircuts had individuals feeling less like themselves and further lost in time and space. This is in accordance with the theory of routinization as presented by Giddens (1984). Routine is an essential component to the personality and well-being of the individual.
38 6.3 Cooperative Action
In the communal coping process, collaboration is a key step in order to construct strategies in reducing the negative impact of the stressor. Tweeters can be said to take part in this step just by sharing their take on the common stressor, as ranting and making sense of the critical situation in itself is a collaboration within the community. Pooling resources within the network, offering social support for each other, reducing stress and building community by facing stressors together, and social integration are other examples of provisions of communal coping (Lyons et. al.,1998). This pattern of not only asking for help and support but also offering help and support is an element that in essence defines the communal coping process and makes it clear that it is taking place online.
Within the data clear patterns appeared which all pointed towards the online communal coping process. The patterns within this cluster included (1) asking for/offering help, support, solutions, and connection, (2) maintaining a positive narrative, and (3) using humor to address the stressors.
6.3.1 Asking for/offering help, support, & connection
A quite small yet relevant number of tweets explicitly asked for help from their Twitter network. The nature of these tweets disclosed practical difficulties regarding the technicalities of setting up an office and working from home. Others explicitly asked for help in finding employment that offered to work from home, their stressor most likely being that they were out of a job. The largest portion of tweets asking for help included tweeters sharing their new normal or expressing issues they are having, and thereafter asking if they were alone in this or if this in some way was found strange by others. Without the day-to-day interaction with co-workers and the maintenance of work norms, individuals shared new routines and wondered if their new work rituals were similar to others within their network.
39
A much more prominent pattern within the dataset was the one of offering help, support, motivation, and connection. Practical tips offered included educational articles on the topic of working from home, suggested office equipment and set-up, reminders about the importance of self-care and rest, as well as vacant job opportunities. Other tweets offered encouragement and motivation through text and pictures. Sending positive vibes and love, encouraging each other to stay positive, safe, and at home, and asking if others are alright were often included at the end of tweets which had elements of other patterns to begin with. Sometimes, direct support or tips was sent to other tweeters through mentions and shout outs. With a clear connection to the communal coping orientation, several tweets included encouragement of collaboration, encouraging others to reach out for help, and come together to deal with the stressors. Furthermore, tweeters often expressed an issue or a change in routine that they were experiencing, and thereafter expressing support and symbols of solidarity to others in the same situation.
These actions point towards provisions for coping, for relationships and for the self (Lyons et. al.,1998). Social integration and the drive behind it to feel needed and valued are a prominent part of communal coping for the self. Reaching out both to offer and ask for support further may maintain and develop relationships within the network. Since face-to-
40 face interaction and social gatherings are prohibited, connecting with others and being supportive online is a way to strengthen one’s identity as a social being with strong social connections and a network of friends. For the collective this pooling of resources strengthens and multiplies the tools available to each individual, making it a valuable cooperative action within the communal coping process.
Similarly, the action of sharing a personal solution to a struggle with an online network may have several functions for coping. Showing that one overcame adversity related to working from home may on the one hand be a form of offering support and advice to others who may have the same difficulty.
However, this may also be a positive narrative which serves both as a coping effort to shift focus or an effort to maintaining a self-image of being able to handle the situation.
6.3.2 Maintaining a positive narrative
According to frameworks for coping, focusing on and maintaining a positive outlook and narrative has several functions in coping processes (Moos & Schaefer, 1986; Folkman & Lazarus, 1984). Within the Twitter data, communication about stressors and the difficulties involved were in some cases joined together with a more positive approach to the stressor. Expressing experienced benefits alongside the stresses of the critical situation and showing gratitude are actions that from an individual coping perspective could be recognized as efforts towards maintaining a satisfactory self-image and preserving individual feelings of mastery and competence (Moos & Schaefer, 1986).
While sharing difficulties concerning the stressors of involuntarily working from home were a lot more common than communications about the benefits of the situation, overlooking
41 these would give a biased view on the patterns presented within the data. Getting to be closer to family and pets, enjoying activities at home during breaks, being in more comfortable clothes and having a new view while working were common aspects that tweeters shared about their new work routines. Many tweets included expressions of feeling lucky, grateful, and hopeful about the situation they were in, often making it clear that the user is aware that others are having a worse time during the circumstances of the pandemic.
Hope about the time that is to come, when things would calm down or go back to “normal”, was expressed through making plans and asking what others looked forwards to when lockdown would end. This was often shared with the air of “times are tough now, but it will only get better from here”. Some tweeters also expressed that they preferred their lifestyle when working from home and hoped to continue doing so even when going back to the office would be allowed. These positive reappraisals are responses to the stressor in which the individual expresses having changed or grown as a person in a good way (Folkman & Lazarus, 1984) and in doing so may maintain a feeling of mastery in the face of the crisis (Moos & Schaefer, 1986).
6.3.3 Using humor to address the stressors
Studies have shown that humor is associated with beneficial outcomes in coping processes. Humor helps individuals discuss difficult subjects, maintain a satisfactory self-image, preserve a feeling of mastery, increase self-esteem and self-protective cognitive appraisals in times of stress, respond better to both positive and negative life events, reduce work-related stress, and offer intrapersonal coping by creating positive affect (McGraw, Warren & Kan, 2015; Simis-Wilkinson et. al., 2018; Martin et. al, 1993; Kruczek, & Basińska, 2018). Sharing humorous content is a popular, long-lasting trend on social media platforms such as Twitter which often takes root in strange situations.
42 The findings here are in line with these prior theories concerning humor and coping. Using humor was one of the most prominent patterns within the data. Together with the action of identifying the new normal, humor had the most visual synergy with other coded patterns.
Sarcasm, funny anecdotes of the new normal, memes, metaphors, personifications, and simply pointing out the absurdity of the situation were often included in tweets in which difficulties were brought up. The multiple elements of a tweet (text, picture, link, emoticons, hashtags, GIFs, etc.) allowed for users to share one message in the text for instance, and another through a picture. In this way, an expression of experienced difficulty could be joined by a picture or video which exaggerated the sentiment and hence made it seem funny.
Also, within this pattern the merging of work time, space, and identity with home time, space and identity appeared. Family, spouses, children, and pets were often portrayed as the new boss, co-worker, or client humorously. Many users shared funny anecdotes of videoconferencing gone wrong, for instance, a new “co-worker” barging into the office inappropriately undressed or the “supervisors” of the videoconference participants barking at each other through the computer screen. Hashtags were used to further point at the absurd or funny aspects of the new normal, such as #NoPantsTilVaccine. Sharing other users’ funny content with or without comment was popular, with several users often sharing the same funny picture or video that circulated on the platform.
A close consideration of the theory and prior studies presented on humor, together with the results found in the empirical data, shed light upon the relationship between online humor and online coping. Specifically, the context of online coping with the common stressors of involuntarily working from home highlights the theory of the Benign Violations Theory presented by McGraw, Williams, & Warren (2013). In accordance with the theory, much of the humorous tweets concerned violations of social norms. The context of individuals involuntarily having to perform work tasks such as videoconferencing from home allowed for a whole array of benign violations to take place. For instance, if someone showed up at work without wearing pants, this would definitely be a violation. Perhaps it would be funny in hindsight, but at the time this might cause a bit of disruption and discomfort for the people
43 involved. While working from home, however, the violation of attending a meeting without wearing pants becomes a lot more benign.
Figure 4: Representation based on Benign Violations Theory (McGraw & Warner, 2015)
6.4 Topics: Work-life-balance, Family & Pets
The most prominent topics of the tweets in the dataset were the ones of work-life-balance, family, and pets.
In their study on the implications of involuntary vs. voluntary flexible work, Kaduk, Genadek, Kelly & Moen (2019) explore the complexity behind remote work and flexible schedules. Their findings include notions that involuntary variable schedules and location independence when working are associated with greater stress, burnout, turnover intentions, work-to-family conflict, and lower job satisfaction (Kaduk, Genadek, Kelly & Moen, 2019). In line with these findings, the topics of work-life-balance were often coded to communication about the stressors that involve working from home.
Careful considerations of the major patterns within the clusters of Communication about the stressor as well as Cooperative action revealed the trending notion that users were experiencing, struggling, and coping with the merging of home-life and work-life. The
44 otherwise separated elements of daily life, such as time (work hours vs. hours off), space (office vs. home), social spheres (co-workers vs. family), and tasks (taking care of children, cooking, cleaning vs. job-related tasks), were due to the pandemic and mandatory regulations of working from home merged. For example, one user shared having no space to work due to her sharing the home spaces with other family members:
In line with studies on involuntary remote work, users often expressed struggling with keeping a healthy work-life balance. Restrictions on circulation as well as work from home orders created a reality for most tweeters where there was no escape from neither.
Another element of life that was disrupted by the pandemic and its implications was the one of identity creation. In line with theories of identity presented by Marwick and Boyd (2010), a distinct set of users expressed difficulty with having an almost separate identity at work than at home. The merging time, space, and social spheres at work and at home caused a collapse of identities where the users expressed having to for example be wives, mothers, and perform their work rolls all at once.
As put forwards by Marwick and Boyd (2010), the notion of imagined audiences on social media contrasts this new identity collapse by providing a platform where the user more often than not has an idea of who they are portraying themselves to. In the coping process as a whole, this fills the acknowledged coping functions of self-preserving one’s image and maintaining the routine of communicating in a platform in which the audience is perceivably unaltered by the critical situation.
45 While many grievances about distraction and identity collapse were directed towards having to share workspaces and hours with others in their homes, users also shared positive narratives of gratitude and benefits directed at family members and pets. The pattern followed that while family and pets were a source of distraction often named as stressors, for many it also seemed to be a source for coping both offline and online.
While assumptions of offline coping strategies can only be made if explicit in the empirical data, stories about how pets and family members helped in dealing with stressors were colored in gratitude and appreciation. Online, individuals would use personification to discuss other stressors, by for instance claiming that their cat or dog was struggling with certain aspects of working from home. Additionally, much communication about the stressors and cooperative action was carried out through the topics of commonalities such as family and pets. By sharing these common features of daily life, users connected by posting stories on these topics together with the hashtag #workfromhome. Pictures of children sitting next to their parents at their home workspace or cats curled up in the laps of owners as they worked were often shared with gratitude and humor, while still expressing the challenges of the situation displayed.
7. DISCUSSION
In the following section, the results will be discussed in relation to both prior research and the main research question of the study. A summary of the findings concerning each research question will be presented, along with interpretations, implications, and recommendations.
The results point towards that tweeters are partaking in online communal coping efforts that serve (1) communal coping orientation through placing blame and claiming responsibility, direct connections, and discussing developments of the critical situation, (2) communication about the stressor through defining the new normal and expressing difficulties concerning the practical and emotional stressors, (3) cooperative action through asking for/offering support, tips, inspiration, and connection, maintaining a positive narrative, and using humor to address stressors. These results lead to a discussion about interpretations and implications that can be made from the findings.
46 Firstly, the context of the coping processes taking place online as well as the nature of the data in the analysis backs up a widely recognized assumption about coping – it is a messy process that in essence is social. When studying coping online, the lines between individual coping and collective coping are blurred and near impossible to distinguish. While other studies of online coping have made this distinction, this study contradicts this by claiming that all online coping is in essence communal. Offline, scholars suggest that some coping efforts are more individualistically or collectivistically purposed. However, when users turn to social media to, say, communicate with a perceived audience about the stressors they are experiencing, they are already partaking in the social process of coping. While researchers cannot make assumptions about what intentions the user has offline, the explicit action of communicating about the stressor online can be recognized as a communal coping strategy.
Secondly, the presented theoretical framework that forms the basis of this study prompts that coping is seen as a messy social process which takes place with or without the awareness of the copers. The provisions, strategies, and purposes of coping put forwards by scholars are nuanced and many, applicable to stressors and critical situations that range from individual everyday challenges to natural disasters affecting whole societies (Eckenrode, 1991; Aldwin, 2007; Lyons, et. al., 1998; Pennebaker & Harber, 1993; Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Moos and Schaefer, 1986). In line with these ideas about the fluctuations of coping, this study looks closely at the messy coping process of dealing with a globally common stressor – involuntarily working from home during COVOD-19. Throughout the analysis, it became evident that tweeting was in itself an action which filled coping purposes, due to the context creating the stressors (e.g. isolation from face-to-face interactions, the merging of home and work life). Routine is an essential component to the personality and well-being of the individual agent but is also vital to institutions of society, which in essence come to be through the reproduction of routine (Giddens, 1984, p. 60). Following this theory of routinization, in these times of drastic change users may turn to their online routines of tweeting which have been less affected by the critical situation.
These lines of analysis present implications for future studies concerning online communal coping. If the context of the critical situation which is being coped with limits offline coping possibilities, the act of tweeting can from several aspects be seen as a coping strategy. While researchers can only draw assumptions from the empirical surface of the data, this approach
47 to posting experiences, thoughts, or ideas to an online social platform as a relevant part of the communal coping process allows for further studies on a wide variety of potential stressors.
The results of the study further demonstrate the relationship between online humor and online communal coping. Humor played a prominent role in both communication about the stressor and cooperative action. The data confirms that Benign Violations Theory is relevant in understanding the phenomena of how humor is used online, suggesting that individuals used humor to discuss the stressors (violations) of the critical situation in a less threatening way by playing on the absurdity of the situation to make things funny.
While these findings could be assumed through a quick scroll through most social media platforms (humor being a common theme on Twitter), in the search of literature on humor and coping, humor was rarely explicitly named as a prominent coping strategy in dealing with stressors. In contradiction with this, humor was an outstandingly frequent approach to both communicating about the stressors and taking cooperative action to address stressors in the studied body of data. These findings could beneficially be taken into account when approaching both online humor and online coping studies in the future. Future research could use both the benign violations theory and coping humor as a suggested direction of where to look for these social processes.
Closely related to humors role in the communal coping process, the analysis of the prominent topics work-life-balance, family, and pets demonstrated the relationship between several stressors and the communal coping process that takes place online. With otherwise separated elements of work-life and home-life, such as time, space, social spheres, tasks, and identity, pets and family became both a source for stressors and a source for coping online and offline. The findings suggest that these commonly shared features of daily life amongst tweeters played a relevant role in how coping with stressors related to maintaining work-life-balance while involuntarily working from home took place. Furthermore, the merging of the different context of life also called for a coping platform in which the perceived audiences of individuals remained presumably unchanged throughout the critical situation.
The study and findings of how individuals are using an online social platform such as Twitter for communal coping with common stressors of maintaining a work-life-balance while involuntarily working from home has several implications, both in recommendations for
48 further studies as well as in real-life contexts. In contemporary times when the nature of work is evolving, the findings that individuals are connecting with other users in the communal coping orientation, communicating about the stressors on a public platform, and taking cooperative action online offer opportunities for researchers, individuals, and organizations alike. For researchers, it opens up potential areas of study in which a better understanding of the changing nature of work can be pursued. For individuals, awareness about the benefits and risks involved in online communal coping can help strengthen the process overall. For organizations and businesses, the study of online communal coping with changes in routines and work can promote an understanding of the challenges their employees face when going through changes due to the evolving nature of work. An understanding may help in adaption when things drastically change and even perhaps facilitation of online coping opportunities.
Common for most conclusions drawn from the data is the aspect of connection. The context of COVID-19 has disconnected individuals all over the world from their usual daily social interactions. The common stressors experienced by the involuntary remote workforce may be characterized by their isolation from one another, but the common stressors and approaches in managing these stressors create online connections. These online connections - facilitating communal coping orientation, communication about the stressor, and cooperative action taking place on social media - may or may not assist in a beneficial coping process but are evidently part in it none the less.
8. CONCLUSION
This thesis explored the role of social media in communal coping. Specifically, it explored the role of Twitter in the communal coping with stressors affecting a global population due to the COVID-19 pandemic disease, with the purpose of answering the main research question: How is Twitter being used as a platform for online coping with the common stressor of involuntary teleworking from home during a pandemic?
Through a mixed methods analysis of Twitter content collected from two weeks in April 2020, this study examined how tweeters are connecting through the hashtag #workfromhome in order to cope with stressors involved with working remotely from their homes. Using sensitized concepts from theoretical frameworks and prior studies of coping, a hermeneutic
49 approach to social science was adopted in the research. Qualitative and quantitative content analysis was performed in several rounds of iterative process coding.
The findings of this thesis suggest that in the context of COVID-19 tweeting is itself part of the coping process. Further, online coping strategies can first and foremost be recognized as communal. In answer to the main research question, Twitter is being used as a platform for communal coping orientation, communication about the stressor, and cooperative action. More specifically, humor is widely adopted as a means to discuss the stressors and take communal action. Furthermore, pets and family are for many users common features of daily life while working from home, making these topics relatable and promoting connection between users experiencing similar challenges. This notion of connectivity brings the research questions, results, and conclusions together, as it evidently is at the core of Twitter’s role in the online communal coping process.
With the changing nature of work and the ongoing uncertainty concerning the long-term implications of COVID-19, the direction of this thesis and its findings may assist organizations and stakeholders alike in understanding the impact of involuntary remote work on individuals. An understanding of the stressors involuntary remote work creates could help organizations respond to these stressors with possible solutions and help strengthen the coping process overall. The unique specific context of COVID-19 and the focus on that the use of social media in itself is part in the communal coping process of dealing with stressors related to the pandemic opens up new opportunities for research within the field of studying online coping efforts.
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54 FIGURE REFERENCES
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55 APPENDIXES Appendix 1: Codebook
Clusters, Main patterns, sub-patterns, codes*
1. Communal Coping Orientation CODING GUIDELINES Connecting with other users * - Coding is not exclusive due to the functional Discussing developments * elements of a Tweet. In other words, one piece of Placing blame and claiming responsibility * data can be included in one, several or even all codes. 2. Communications About Stressors Defining the new normal - If a tweet features a Main Pattern which has sub- Sharing new routines * patterns, the tweet is to be coded to the sub- Regular routine posting * pattern. The lowest-level code under the pattern Expressing difficulty should always be coded for. Emotional Difficulty * Practical Difficulty * - Links in tweets are to be opened in a search engine for examination of additional content and be coded 3. Cooperative Action accordingly. Asking for/offering help, support, and connection Asking for help/support/inspiration/tips* - The technique used is process coding. As analysis Offering help/support/inspiration/tips* and conclusions can only be drawn from the Offering connection* empirical evidence in the data, the codes are to be Offer Personal Solution* applied to what communicative action the user was Maintaining a positive narrative taking by tweeting, not alone the actions described Sharing benefits * in the tweet. Expressing gratitude * Looking Ahead * Using humor*
Topics Pets & Animals* Family* 56
1. COMMUNAL COPING ORIENTATION As a component in Lyons et. al. (1998) communal coping framework, communal coping orientation is the process in which the need for communal coping is recognized.
Label/Name Brief Description Example Connecting with other User mentions other user users through @, answers to questions others have asked, accepts or gives challenges to others
Discussing User partakes in discussions developments about how pandemic, regulations and lockdowns, and remote work will develop.
Placing blame and User claims individual or claiming collective responsibility or responsibility places blame on others to address the stressors of the critical situation.
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58 2. COMMUNICATION ABOUT THE STRESSOR Most frameworks for studying individual, collective and communal coping alike agree upon that communication concerning details of the circumstances and the meaning of the critical situation are essential to the coping process (Lyons, et.al., 1998; Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Pennebaker and Harber, 1993; Moos and Schaefer, 1986).
Defining the new normal Sharing new routines User shares changes in their life due to the critical situation, such as the new manner in which work, daily routines, schedules, tasks, norms and rules have changed with remote work.
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Regular routine posting User posts with the hashtag #workfromhome without relating other elements of the tweet to the topic. This could be selfies, food pictures,motivational quotes, or other messages/content that might as well have been posted in other times as well.
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61 Expressing difficulty Emotional User discloses Difficulty emotional issues through (1)description of specific situation, (2)using negatively powered emotional words such as stress, bored, anxiety, missing, or struggling, (3) using visual content or functional elements of twitter to disclose emotional difficulty.
Practical User shares practical Difficulty issues of working from home during a pandemic by disclosing the specific or general practical issue.
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63 3. COOPERATIVE ACTION In the communal coping process, collaboration in order to construct strategies in reducing the negative impact of the stressor is a key step. Pooling resources within the network, offering social support for each other, reducing stress and building community by facing stressors together, and social integration are other examples of provisions of communal coping (Lyons et. al.,1998).
Asking for/offering help, support, and connection Asking for User explicitly asks for help/support/inspiration/tips help, support, inspiration or tips on how to deal with emotional or practical stressors.
Offering User offers tips on how help/support/inspiration/tips to address emotional or practical stressors, shares inspirational/motivational messages, or offers supportive messages in general or to a specific audience.
64
Offering connection User shows willingness to connect by asking how/what others are doing, using a narrative of help or support, and
explicitly encouraging others to reach out and connect.
Offer Personal Solution User shares or shows how they personally have dealt with a practical or emotional stressor.
65
66 Maintaining positive narrative Sharing benefits User shares stories, ideas, thoughts and/or opinions of what benefits they are experiencing from the
situation of working from home.
Expressing Gratitude User shares messages of gratitude and appreciation, either for aspects of their life and situation, towards offline individuals, or towards groups, or towards other users within their online network. Can be directed towards others through a @mention or more general. Looking ahead User expresses longing or hopeful perspectives of the future, shares what there is to look forwards to, and expresses belief that times will improve.
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68
Using Humor Using Humor User shares funny anecdotes of the new normal, memes, metaphors, personifications, or points out the absurdity of the situation in a humorous manner.
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70 TOPICS
Pets & Animals User shares content that relates to pets or animals.
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Family User shares content that relates to family.
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