Collective Trauma During the Covid-19 Pandemic Through an Analysis of Texts on Twitter

Studies show that COVID-19 pandemic resulted to collective trauma. People of different backgrounds experienced the psychological impact of this health crisis. This study aimed to describe this social phenomenon as it is experienced by the global population through the use of text mining techniques in analyzing texts extracted from Twitter. Findings revealed that collective trauma is commonly experienced as a personal psychological suffering and uncertainty about the course of this crisis. Contributing to trauma are protocol quarantine restrictions which led to feelings of isolation and fear. Frontliners and health care workers were of higher risk. Collective trauma evoked pro-social behaviors, like care and support, leading to recovery. A process of collective vulnerability and collective resiliency was further inferred from the analysis. General population shared tweets which reflected a balance between facts and personal opinions and these expressions indicated neutral emotions about the social phenomena. Future research will limit data extraction to specific geographical locations to identify non-shared experiences as a result of cultural or political influences.