EXAMINING THE CHANGES REGARDING “SPORTS AT HOME” IN THE FRAMEWORK OF YOUTUBE COMMENTS BEFORE AND DURING THE PANDEMIC

This study aims to reveal the difference between opinions of individuals who do sports at home by watching videos on YouTube, which gained popularity all over the world before and during the pandemic. In order to examine the change in subject of "sports at home" before and during the pandemic, the most watched "exercise" themed video titled "Do This Everyday to Lose Weight" was selected as data source and user comments were categorized thematically. To analyze data set, Mozdeh Big Data Text Analysis (2020) was used to collect user comments from videos and the number of interactions of these comments via API connection. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze user comments. The themes were categorized as feedback as a result of regular participation, feedback to content creator, body image anxiety, being happy with body changes, insights focused on weight loss, motivation, challenge and struggle, barriers to participation, flow experience, health status reporting, leisure and enjoyment. It was determined that especially the groups of challenging and struggling, use of leisure time, enjoyment were the themes that received more interaction.