Pandemic sandbox - a netnography of an online community of mothers during the health crisis

The restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have presented many parents with the challenge of simultaneously caring for their children and carrying out their work responsibilities. The disruption of social order and anxiety about their own health and of their loved ones added to the difficulties of daily life. These fears were fuelled by media coverage, including an increasing amount of intentionally misleading information, so-called fake news, rapidly flooding the media, especially social media. The netnography of one of the largest online communities of parents in Poland allowed us to describe mothers’ needs, their mutual support during the health crisis, as well as to explore the ways in which community members search for information and to identify the types of sources considered credible. The research material included 1,241 posts and 34,111 comments collected during the first 13 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. From our analysis of the research material, we drew conclusions about the dynamics and structure of the bottom-up response to the epidemic, the potential of the online communities and challenges they face in the context of crisis.