Stress Coping Strategies on Short Video Social Media [Letter]

Dear editor

I was impressed by a recent study entitled “Adapting to Lockdown: Exploring Stress Coping Strategies on Short Video Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” This research is superior in several ways: 1) this research is somewhat different from general research, which emphasizes the negative impact of social media on psychology, while this research specifically analyzes the implications of short social media videos with positive figurations of personal well-being; 2) this research constructs a stress management model that is correlated with the behaviour of platform users during the lockdown policy; 3) focusing on the behaviour of users of short video platforms and communication between users with problem-focus coping and emotion-focus coping features, thereby offering a comprehensive understanding of viewing behaviour during the lockdown.¹

However, several notes need to be taken into consideration by the authors: 1) although situation-strategy plays an important role in person-situation interactionist theory, it is important to add Problem-Focused Coping (PFC) factors as emphasized by Lazarus and Folkman such as health and energy or positive beliefs; 2) although this research is claimed to have positive implications, the results of research on the negative impact of short video addiction are difficult to simplify; 3) data collection via social media, so the information provided may be limited and not in-depth.

To gain a deeper understanding, future research can embrace this note through 1) Research that includes many factors that influence stress coping; 2) comparative research on the positive and negative impacts of short videos on stress; 3) Qualitative design approaches such as case studies and virtual ethnography, to obtain more in-depth information regarding the positive impact of short videos on stress coping.²