College student expression on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective:The current study longitudinally examines college student Twitter patterns throughout initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to better understand psychological impact and online personal communication during the pandemic.

Participants:A dataset consisting of ∼720,000 tweets posted by students from universities throughout the United States during the 2020 spring semester was analyzed according to structural and sentimental analysis.

Methods:Using a data-driven approach, three time periods emerged which reflected the transition to online learning.

Results:Significant changes in structure and sentiment of tweets were observed across phases.

Conclusions:Changes in Twitter patterns revealed important features of this unprecedented transition to online learning for college students.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• online learning
• pandemic
• student expression
• Twitter

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United States of America.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.