Evolving norms: social media data analysis on parks and greenspaces perception changes before and after the COVID 19 pandemic using a machine learning approach

Date

2022

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Abstract

This study provides a novel approach to understand human perception changes in their experiences of and interactions with public greenspaces during the early months of COVID-19. Using social media data and machine learning techniques, the study delivers new understandings of how people began to feel differently about their experiences compared to pre-COVID times. The study illuminates a renewed appreciation of nature as well as an emerging but prominent pattern of emotional and spiritual experiences expressed through a social media platform. Given that most park and recreational studies have almost exclusively examined whether park use increased or decreased during the pandemic, this research provides meaningful implications beyond the simple extensional visit pattern and lends weight to the growing evidences on changing perceptions over and the positive psychological impacts of nature. The study highlights the preeminent roles parks and greenspaces play during the pandemic and guides a new direction in future park development to support more natural elements and nature-oriented experiences from which emotional and spiritual well-being outcomes can be drawn.

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Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Keywords

COVID-19, machine learning, global health crisis, mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, SARS-CoV-2 infection

Citation

Park, S., Kim, S., Lee, J. et al. Evolving norms: social media data analysis on parks and greenspaces perception changes before and after the COVID 19 pandemic using a machine learning approach. Sci Rep 12, 13246 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17077-3

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