Physical distancing overcome by social media: connecting of youth with family members through WhatsApp games to overcome depression

Introduction: India, a land of culture, has the strongest pillar of Family as an institution. Families play a major role in the life of an Indian to overcome the stressful situation. India is currently undergoing a stressful situation, facing lockdown, maintaining physical distances to overcome Covid-19. Social Media proves to be a boon to connect family members through various applications and features during such times. Purpose: Lockdown has brought about isolation and passivity among the individuals. At such times, an individual may face depression and anxiety since there is nothing to do. This study highlights the use of social media to overcome physical distances during lockdown and thereby understanding the effect on Depression. Design: It is a descriptive research based on questionnaire as primary data. Data was collected and analysed to understand the nine different parameters of depression. The data was collected from 3 different regions from 500 respondents. The age was categorized as 15-24 and 25-34. Findings: It was found that people were more attached to family members when they were Motivated. But slowly they themselves were excited and took initiative to connect with family members. Different games catered to their interest of connecting with families and overcoming depression.