Park, Kim, Lee, and Heo studied how thoughts about nature evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. They report that “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. . . . 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.”
Sohyun Park, Seungman Kim, Jaehoon Lee, and Biyoung Heo. 2022. “Evolving Norms: Social Media Data Analysis on Parks and Greenspaces Perception Changes Before and After the COVID 19 Pandemic Using a Machine Learning Approach.” Scientific Reports, vol. 12, article no. 13246, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-17077-3