Happy or lonely? Investigating mental well-being using remote methods during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands

Marije Kanis; Marijn Schraagen; Shihan Wang; Erik Tjong Kim  Sang

Happy or lonely? Investigating mental well-being using remote methods during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands

Marije Kanis
, Marijn Schraagen
, Shihan Wang
, Erik Tjong Kim Sang

Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries (FDMCI)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Understanding the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on mental health and digital interactions is crucial, but also difficult to study in times of physical distancing. This paper contributes to the understanding of well-being in The Netherlands during the pandemic by employing mixed-remote methods. Sentiments of the Dutch public expressed on X (formally Twitter) are analyzed with AI techniques. Additionally, co-creative toolkits and probes, such as diaries, were used with older adults and students for detailed in-situ capturing. The AI approach provides general insights, while toolkit studies can address interpersonal variation and provide non-automated individual feedback. Findings indicate that (1) the pandemic has impacted the expressed emotional states of ‘loneliness’ and ‘happiness’, (2) this varied over time, for example related to pandemic announcements, (3) there are differences between groups (such as young and old), and (4) the toolkits provided contextual self-reflective insights and active inspiration in support of mental well-being.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3-20
Journal	Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Journal
Volume	14
Publication status	Published - 2025

Funding

We thank all participants, partners and contributors to this work. Particularly, we thank the Netherlands eScience Center, the Centres of Expertise of Creation Innovation (CoECI), and Urban Vitality. We acknowledge Berber Nauta, Daniël Bossen, Joey van der Bie, the staff and students from the AUAS minor Care technology, and minor Creative research, their coordinators Michel Alders and Marije ten Brink, and the AUAS Communication and Multimedia Design Department (CMD).

Access to Document

https://www.clinjournal.org/clinj/article/view/184Licence: Unspecified

Handle.net

Persistent link

2 Educational contribution
1 Organising a conference, workshop, ...
1 Oral presentation

Studenten werken aan toolkits voor welzijn in corona tijd
Kanis, M. (Other)
Mar 2021
Activity: Educational contribution / Supervising student theses, products › Educational contribution › Educational
New approaches for participation in digital society in distant times of COVID-19
Kanis, M. (Speaker)
7 May 2021
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation › Academic

File
Co-Well: Co-Creation at a distance meeting
Kanis, M. (Organiser) & van der Bie, J. (Organiser)
29 Sept 2020
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organising a conference, workshop, ... › Professional

Cite this

@article{b07178fdc6754343aea2105b91c9f4e1,

title = "Happy or lonely? Investigating mental well-being using remote methods during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands",

abstract = "Understanding the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on mental health and digital interactions is crucial, but also difficult to study in times of physical distancing. This paper contributes to the understanding of well-being in The Netherlands during the pandemic by employing mixed-remote methods. Sentiments of the Dutch public expressed on X (formally Twitter) are analyzed with AI techniques. Additionally, co-creative toolkits and probes, such as diaries, were used with older adults and students for detailed in-situ capturing. The AI approach provides general insights, while toolkit studies can address interpersonal variation and provide non-automated individual feedback. Findings indicate that (1) the pandemic has impacted the expressed emotional states of {\textquoteleft}loneliness{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}happiness{\textquoteright}, (2) this varied over time, for example related to pandemic announcements, (3) there are differences between groups (such as young and old), and (4) the toolkits provided contextual self-reflective insights and active inspiration in support of mental well-being.",

keywords = "Happiness, Well-being, AI, ai and creativity, Probe, X, NLP, Remote monitoring, Students, Social media data, Loneliness, Tool, Social media, Natural language processing (NLP), Data analysis, co-well, public governance, Wellbeing, COVID-19, Creative methods, Creative innovation, Social AI, Diary method, co-prodigy, Communication, The Netherlands, Mental health, mixed methods, Mixed methods research, PuReGoMe, CMD, Research methods, Twitter, Creative research, remote design methods, studenten, afstandsonderwijs, Studentenwelzijn, toolkit, urban vitality, Positive psychology, Expressive writing, Sport Activity",

author = "Marije Kanis and Marijn Schraagen and Shihan Wang and Sang, \{Erik Tjong Kim\}",

note = "{\textcopyright} CLIN Journal. ",

year = "2025",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

pages = "3--20",

journal = "Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Journal",

issn = "2211-4009",

publisher = "Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Happy or lonely? Investigating mental well-being using remote methods during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands

AU - Kanis, Marije

AU - Schraagen, Marijn

AU - Wang, Shihan

AU - Sang, Erik Tjong Kim

N1 - © CLIN Journal.

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Understanding the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on mental health and digital interactions is crucial, but also difficult to study in times of physical distancing. This paper contributes to the understanding of well-being in The Netherlands during the pandemic by employing mixed-remote methods. Sentiments of the Dutch public expressed on X (formally Twitter) are analyzed with AI techniques. Additionally, co-creative toolkits and probes, such as diaries, were used with older adults and students for detailed in-situ capturing. The AI approach provides general insights, while toolkit studies can address interpersonal variation and provide non-automated individual feedback. Findings indicate that (1) the pandemic has impacted the expressed emotional states of ‘loneliness’ and ‘happiness’, (2) this varied over time, for example related to pandemic announcements, (3) there are differences between groups (such as young and old), and (4) the toolkits provided contextual self-reflective insights and active inspiration in support of mental well-being.

AB - Understanding the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on mental health and digital interactions is crucial, but also difficult to study in times of physical distancing. This paper contributes to the understanding of well-being in The Netherlands during the pandemic by employing mixed-remote methods. Sentiments of the Dutch public expressed on X (formally Twitter) are analyzed with AI techniques. Additionally, co-creative toolkits and probes, such as diaries, were used with older adults and students for detailed in-situ capturing. The AI approach provides general insights, while toolkit studies can address interpersonal variation and provide non-automated individual feedback. Findings indicate that (1) the pandemic has impacted the expressed emotional states of ‘loneliness’ and ‘happiness’, (2) this varied over time, for example related to pandemic announcements, (3) there are differences between groups (such as young and old), and (4) the toolkits provided contextual self-reflective insights and active inspiration in support of mental well-being.

KW - Happiness

KW - Well-being

KW - AI

KW - ai and creativity

KW - Probe

KW - X

KW - NLP

KW - Remote monitoring

KW - Students

KW - Social media data

KW - Loneliness

KW - Tool

KW - Social media

KW - Natural language processing (NLP)

KW - Data analysis

KW - co-well

KW - public governance

KW - Wellbeing

KW - COVID-19

KW - Creative methods

KW - Creative innovation

KW - Social AI

KW - Diary method

KW - co-prodigy

KW - Communication

KW - The Netherlands

KW - Mental health

KW - mixed methods

KW - Mixed methods research

KW - PuReGoMe

KW - CMD

KW - Research methods

KW - Twitter

KW - Creative research

KW - remote design methods

KW - studenten

KW - afstandsonderwijs

KW - Studentenwelzijn

KW - toolkit

KW - urban vitality

KW - Positive psychology

KW - Expressive writing

KW - Sport Activity

M3 - Article

SN - 2211-4009

VL - 14

SP - 3

EP - 20

JO - Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Journal

JF - Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Journal

ER -

Happy or lonely? Investigating mental well-being using remote methods during the COVID-19 pandemic in The Netherlands

Abstract

Funding

Access to Document

Handle.net

Fingerprint

Activities

Studenten werken aan toolkits voor welzijn in corona tijd

New approaches for participation in digital society in distant times of COVID-19

Co-Well: Co-Creation at a distance meeting

Cite this