Digital Information Seeking and Sharing Behavior During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: People turn to search engines and social media to seek information during population-level events, such as during civil unrest, disease outbreaks, fires, or flood. They also tend to participate in discussions and disseminate information and opinions via social media forums, and smartphone messaging applications. COVID-19 pandemic was not any different. However, the proper medical awareness and correct information dissemination is critical during a pandemic. An unprecedented amount of internet traffic related to this topic was generated during the start of the pandemic all over the world. In this work, we have analysed the electronic data generated by users from Pakistan on Google Search Engine and WhatsApp to understand their information-seeking behavior during the first wave of the pandemic. The paper aims at analysing how the Pakistani public developed their understanding about the disease, (its origin, cures, and preventive measures to name a few) by analysing digital data. We found that the public actively searched and discussed information at the start of the pandemic. However, their interest waned with time and was reinvigorated only when something novel or shocking seemed to have occurred. Understanding this information seeking behavior will allow corrective actions to be taken by health policymakers to better inform the public for possible future waves of a pandemic through electronic media, as well as and the social media companies and search engines to address misinformation among the users in the emergent markets.