Social anxiety: topics and emotions shared on Reddit before and during the coronavirus pandemic

Social media platforms such as Reddit allow users to share information and find support about different topics. The present research investigated the topics, sentiments, and emotions discussed in a subreddit about social anxiety prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used to discover latent topics from the data. Sentiment and emotion analyses were performed on the posts and comments associated with each topic. Two-proportions z-tests were computed to investigate whether the percentage of positive, negative, and neutral sentiments expressed in posts and comments for each topic differed between the period prior to and during COVID-19. Thirteen topics about social interactions, coping mechanisms, and physiological and cognitive aspects of social anxiety emerged: (1) Miscellaneous, (2) Interacting with others, (3) Family and time, (4) Medication and receiving help, (5) Physical features and appearance, (6) At work, (7) Physical sensations and cognitive aspects, (8) School activities, (9) Dating, (10) Communicating and asking questions, (11) Social media, (12) Stressful behaviors, and (13) Substances. There was no difference in the sentiment of posts and comments between the two time periods, with the exception of a few topics for which there were more neutral comments and fewer positive comments prior to the pandemic. The three most prominent emotions expressed were anticipation, trust, and fear. These findings inform on the topics discussed in an online community about social anxiety, and on differences in the sentiment expressed about those topics prior to and during the pandemic. Future research can investigate causal associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and online discussions about social anxiety, as well as the clinical implications of interacting in such online communities for individuals struggling with social anxiety.