The internet has become an indispensable part in our daily life. An increasing number of literature focuses on the relationship between the internet use and individuals daily life including consumption behavior and access to information (Castellacci and Tveito, 2018; Wang and Hao, 2018; Xiao et al., 2022). As for the influence of the internet use on residents internet use and the fear of infection with Covid-19, we can understand the roles of the internet use from following perspectives.
The purpose of the residents using the internet is to acquiring the information. Some studies have found that individuals behaviors are significantly affected by the information acquired, such as consumption behavior and investment behavior (Castellacci and Tveito, 2018; Wang and Hao, 2018; Xiao et al., 2022). During the Covid-19 pandemic, a large amount of information about Covid-19 can be obtained via the internet rapidly such as the number of infections, the number of the deaths and the news about variation of Covid-19 virus. Almost all the newest information on Covid-19 can be obtained by the public from the internet once they are disclosed. Also, compared with other medias, such as TV or radio, the information on the internet is beyond the location and time limitation. For example, when we enter Covid-19 in the internet, the huge amount of information about it can be seen anytime and anywhere. And many websites or platforms focus on reporting the news about Covid-19 during that period. Specially, when people use the internet by some mobile phone applications, the technology of precise information delivery may make the residents obtain the information about Covid-19 continuously if they search the key words about Covid-19. During the Covid-19 pandemic, besides that the individuals acquire or search the information about Covid-19 initiatively from the internet, they have to face with the information about Covid-19 passively on the internet. These massive information about Covid-19 can be known by individuals in a short period, which is a shock for the individuals. As the information is significantly correlated with the individuals fear and anxiety (Foa and Kozak, 1986; Vervliet et al., 2010), the great amount of information about Covid-19 may make the individuals more afraid of being injected with Covid-19. Especially in the early stages of the Covid-19 epidemic, when individuals do not understand Covid-19 deep enough, the fear for Covid-19 is more likely to be amplified and spread via the internet. Besides that, not only the information about Covid-19 can be conveniently acquired on the internet, but some related information such as the recession, unemployment, bankruptcy caused by Covid-19 can be rapidly known to the public, resulting in the fear of infection with Covid-19.
The information on the internet is not always true, there exists false, exaggerated and one-sided information on the internet (Rausser et al, 2015). During the Covid-19 pandemic, the large amount of information appeared on the internet. Especially, in the early stage of Covid-19 pandemic, there exists a massive of unconfirmed information, and the internet spread these information faster and broader, which may increase the individuals fear of Covid-19. To be specific, it is harder to obtain sufficient and accurate information in China. Taking Baidu as an example, the largest search engine in China, Xu et al. (2021) have pointed out the information from Baidu is less informative due to it is manipulating its search results and intends to make profit from the ads inserted into the search results. Also, the Chinese netizens are much more difficult in getting global information about Covid-19 on the internet. Therefore, we may suppose that the cost for Chinese getting enough and accurate information from the internet is higher. These constrains may make the individuals feel fearful of Covid-19. The massive false, exaggerated and one-sided information on the internet, as well as the higher cost to get the accurate and enough information may reduce the individuals trust to the internet, which further decrease their trust other information on Covid-19 disclosed by other medias or institutions. The decreasing trust to the public information on Covid-19 may increase their fear of being infected with Covid-19.
Another role of the internet is the social media. A large number of applications or websites function as the social media platform. Some people would like to share the information about Covid-19 or their feelings about Covid-19, for example, some people may spread the information about the daily life during the lock-down period or they are shortage of some daily necessities due to Covid-19. Also when they are injected with Covid-19, they may share their uncomfortable Covid-19 symptom on the internet. Generally speaking, on the internet social media, people are free to express their views and emotions, share personal experiences and feelings. The interactive and instantaneous communication ways allow panic to spread rapidly. The fear and panic can be spread among the individuals (Person et al., 2004; Fu et al., 2021), however, by utilizing the internet, the panic can be spread even more rapidly and broadly (Walsh, 2020). Prior literature has found that the social media plays a important role in spreading the panic during the Covid-19 pandemic (Wheaton et al., 2021; Naeem, 2021). When some people make panic-inducing remarks or behaviors due to fear of Covid-19, these emotions can easily resonate on social media, thereby creating a collective atmosphere of panic. Furthermore, the anonymity and interactivity of the internet also provide convenient conditions for the spread of negative emotions, making panic emotions spread rapidly via the internet.
Lastly, from the perspective of the social activities and outside activities, Covid-19 constrains the face-to-face social activities and outside activities. In order to prevent the epidemic spread, the government take some measures including locking down the community, quarantine measures and working or studying from home. The individuals have to stay at home. On the one hand, the individuals may have to spend more time on the internet and more information on Covid-19 may be obtained from the internet, which may result in an increasing fear for Covid-19. On the other hand, during the period of Covid-19 pandemic, the face-to-face social activities decrease significantly and they have to socialize or communicate with each other via the internet. The virtual social or communication via the internet may decrease the trust with each other, diminish the size of the local social networks, and increase feelings of loneliness and depression (Kraut et al., 1998; Green, 2007). The more time spent on virtual socialization may also decrease the individuals willingness to help with each other (Kraut et al., 1998). The negative effect on the socialization may thereby affect their attitude to Covid-19 and feel more terrified to get infection with Covid-19.
Therefore, we propose the Hypothesis 1:
H1:The internet use significantly increases the individuals fear of infection with Covid-19