Twitter Data Sentiment Analysis to Understand the Effects of COVID-19 on Mental Health

Coronavirus pandemic has caused major change in peoples’ personal and social lives. The psychological effects have been substantial because it has affected the ways people live, work, and even socialize. It has also become major discussions on social media platforms as people showcase their opinions and the effect of the virus on their mental health particularly. This pandemic is the first of its kind as humans has never encountered anything like this virus. Handling it was very difficult at first as its characteristics are peculiar. Eventually, it was detected that it is airborne and so there is need to social distance. Before the virus surfaced, some countries of the world were dealing with mental health cases, with over 40 percent of adults in the USA reported experiencing mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression. Social media has become one of the major sources of information due to information sharing on a very large scale. People perception and emotions are also portrayed through their conversations. In this research work, the interaction and conversation of people on social media, particularly Twitter, will be analyzed using machine learning tools and algorithm to determine the effect of the virus on the mental health of people and help suggest the area of concentration to medical practitioners in order to speed up the recovery process and reduce the mental health issues which has escalated due to the virus.