Do Not Come Near Me, Mrs Rona is here: A Systematic Review on the Use of Instagram during COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic infected the world in 2019 and resulted in quarantines and isolation measures that have proven to contain the virus. The isolation exercise had caused drastic changes to normal daily activities, primarily affecting interpersonal relations among humans, where most interactions have now taken place digitally. As a result of these changes, daily online usage has increased with social network applications, including Instagram, dominating the world's most visited websites. This internet platform's usage is mainly for finding information, connecting with loved ones, and keeping up-to-date with news and happenings worldwide. This emerging phenomenon has progressively shifted the communication landscape of both the personal and the business world. These entities of traditional sources are now being integrated with improved online mediators. Recent studies have also highlighted how the interactions of global societies on digital media like Instagram impacted society's education, social life, leisure, and health. Therefore, this systematic review paper is timely to analyze the existing literature on the use of Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides further insights in highlighting the extended usage and functions of Instagram during an emergency state like the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), a systematic review of four (4) main processes was conducted on Scopus 65 related studies: identification, screening, eligibility and data analysis. Of the 65 articles that have been reviewed, only 42 articles were finally selected for further analysis. Findings of the analysis revealed four main themes -the use of Instagram for research (two subthemes), to market products, as a basis for information tools (two subthemes) and for social activity during the pandemic. The ultimate presentation of this paper provides several recommendations with in-depth deliberation. Based on the review, it was found that Instagram was used for information search related to the COVID-19 pandemic and for research (particularly research related to the pandemic and online questionnaire distribution due to movement control order restriction to conduct fieldwork manually). Furthermore, Instagram was used to market