Association of Social Gaming with Well-Being (Escape COVID-19): A Sentiment Analysis

Chayakrit Krittanawong; Hafeez Ul Hassan Virk; Craig L Katz; Scott Kaplin; Zhen Wang; Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich; Eric A Storch; Carl J Lavie

doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.10.010

Association of Social Gaming with Well-Being (Escape COVID-19): A Sentiment Analysis

Am J Med. 2022 Feb;135(2):254-257. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.10.010. Epub 2021 Oct 29.

Authors

Chayakrit Krittanawong¹, Hafeez Ul Hassan Virk², Craig L Katz³, Scott Kaplin⁴, Zhen Wang⁵, Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich⁶, Eric A Storch⁷, Carl J Lavie⁸

Affiliations

¹ The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex. Electronic address: Chayakrit.Krittanawong@bcm.edu.
² Section of Cardiology, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
³ Departments of Medical Education, Psychiatry, and Health System Design & Global Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
⁴ Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, NYU Langone-Long Island, Mineola, NY.
⁵ Mayo Clinic Evidence-Based Practice Center, Rochester, Minn; Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, and Division of Health Care Policy and Research, Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
⁷ Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine; Houston, Tex.
⁸ John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, Ochsner Clinical School, University of Queensland School of Medicine, New Orleans, La.

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.

Keywords: Sentiment analysis; Social gaming; Twitter; Well-Being.

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Psychological*
COVID-19 / prevention & control
COVID-19 / psychology*
COVID-19 / transmission
Games, Recreational / psychology*
Humans
Quarantine / methods
Quarantine / psychology*