BEING ONLINE DURING COVID-19 AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH WELL-BEING: NARRATIVES AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

During COVID-19 outbreak various technological devices have provided a basis for maintaining social connections with friends, family, work and community networks, and media have reported a global increase in Internet use. Scholars debate whether Internet use represented a resource for well-being or on the opposite a risk for health. In the frame of Semiotic, Cultural Psychosocial Theory, we argue that the meaning of Internet use and its impact on well-being might depend on semiotic resources people possessed to represent the crisis and to use the Internet in a healthy manner. The study examines the meanings of being online during the COVID-19 pandemic based on narratives collected from Italian young students (N=323; Mean age = 22.78, SD = 2.70; 77.3% women; 81.9% living with their parents), recruited by Microsoft Forms online survey during first Italian Lockdown, and explores whether different views of being online related to different connotations of the Internet during the pandemic and different levels of well-being. Computer-assisted Content Analysis was used to map the main Dimensions of Meaning (DM) characterizing the texts. Then, ANOVA was used to examine (dis)similarities between DM related to Internet connotations (e.g., resource, danger or refuge); Pearson’s correlations were computed to examine the relationships between DM and well-being. Two DM emerged, the first represent the relationship between being online and the daily life context; the second, the Internet functions during the pandemic. Relations between DM, internet connotation and well-being were found. Findings highlight how a plurality of representations of being online are active in the cultural milieu and their potential role in explaining the different impact of Internet use on well-being during pandemic.