Krittanawong C, Virk HU, Katz CL, Kaplin S, Wang Z, Gonzalez-Heydrich J, Storch EA, Lavie CJ
Abstract
BACKGROUND: During the 2020-2021 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, social activities were limited by the government-recommended social distancing guidelines, leading to an abundance of mental health issues. METHODS: We hypothesized that Twitter sentiment analysis may shed some light on Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its impact on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: We found that social gaming and social media may be used as tools to cope with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Further research, including randomized study designs and prospective measurements of mental health outcomes related to social gaming behavior are required. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. center dot The American Journal of Medicine (2022) 135:254-257
