Young people and COVID-19. The potential importance of social media forums for the psychosocial functioning of the young generation

Abstract

This article is based on two studies that examined the potential role of social media use in feelings of alienation and its dimensions, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both studies used the alienation-integration questionaire by Krystyna Kmiecik-Baran. It allows to measure the level of the general feeling of alienation and its five dimensions: sense of anomie vs. social order; sense of senselessness vs. sense of meaning in life; feeling of helplessness vs. resourcefulness; feeling of self-estrangement vs. autonomy; feeling of isolation vs. integration. Significant differences in both studies (increase) were found only in two demensions: sense of isolation vs. integration and with a sense of helplesness vs. resourcefulness.