Nathan Liang , Samantha J. Grayson , Mia A. Kussman, Judith N. Mildner , Diana I. Tamir
{"title":"In-person and virtual social interactions improve well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Nathan Liang , Samantha J. Grayson , Mia A. Kussman, Judith N. Mildner , Diana I. Tamir","doi":"10.1016/j.chbr.2024.100455","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Social interactions abound in everyday life. Face-to-face interactions, in particular, catalyze the social connection necessary for psychological well-being. What happens, then, when a global pandemic disrupts normal patterns of socialization? In March 2020, the world uploaded much of its face-to-face interactions online, transitioning en masse to remote work. These circumstances provided a natural experiment for studying how virtual versus face-to-face interactions facilitate psychosocial well-being. We conducted two studies measuring how eight types of interactions related to people's positive affect and social connection. Study 1 tracked virtual interactions and well-being (<em>n</em> = 996) in three waves from May 2020–2021. Study 2 measured participants' (<em>n</em> = 249) virtual interactions and well-being three times daily for two weeks. Both studies indicate that voice calling, group calling, and online messaging are associated with increased social connection and positive affect in the short- and long-term. However, the benefits of face-to-face interactions consistently eclipsed those of all virtual surrogates under investigation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72681,"journal":{"name":"Computers in human behavior reports","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958824000885/pdfft?md5=010763ae053007f682389afa6f5e8fe6&pid=1-s2.0-S2451958824000885-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Computers in human behavior reports","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958824000885","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Social interactions abound in everyday life. Face-to-face interactions, in particular, catalyze the social connection necessary for psychological well-being. What happens, then, when a global pandemic disrupts normal patterns of socialization? In March 2020, the world uploaded much of its face-to-face interactions online, transitioning en masse to remote work. These circumstances provided a natural experiment for studying how virtual versus face-to-face interactions facilitate psychosocial well-being. We conducted two studies measuring how eight types of interactions related to people's positive affect and social connection. Study 1 tracked virtual interactions and well-being (n = 996) in three waves from May 2020–2021. Study 2 measured participants' (n = 249) virtual interactions and well-being three times daily for two weeks. Both studies indicate that voice calling, group calling, and online messaging are associated with increased social connection and positive affect in the short- and long-term. However, the benefits of face-to-face interactions consistently eclipsed those of all virtual surrogates under investigation.