The Evolution of Social Media during Lockdown - How the Covid-19 Pandemic affected our Online Lives

Since early 2020, the whole world has been facing the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, best known as the Covid-19 global pandemic. It is the first time in history that something as big as this has happened in the context of the actual global digital world. To reduce the spread of the coronavirus, we had to face a lockdown, which meant social distancing, staying home, and having no opportunity to socialize, except when going out for essential items such as medicine and/or grocery shopping. Consequently, the power of social media increased, and our lives were upset by the impossibility of going out either with friends or to work. I fell in the grip of boredom and decided to open an Instagram account. It was like I was opening my eyes definitively to virtual world due to plenty of free time at home. The strongest sign of a change in social media usage was the boom of memes: some meme templates went literally viral during lockdown. More and more people began to share their feelings on Facebook or Instagram as the only way of socialization. As an effect of misuse and abuse of social platforms, a sort of confusion generated online: one could observe people had the necessity of a rational explication of social distancing and tried to find it by chatting and sharing contents with others most times unknown online users. All of a sudden, our behaviour and our routines were turned upside down. It all went so fast. The pandemic was naturally unexpected, and no one could barely imagine something like this. Anyway, our lives have changed a lot since and we all have had to face a new invisible enemy together. This thesis will analyse how social media has been crucial in facing a global pandemic through the circulation of news. In particular, I will focus on memes and Fake News as online phenomena. Various contributions about these topics were fundamental to me to complete the puzzle and make me aware of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected our online lives.