PSNC and AMU research: How has COVID-19 affected outdoor activities?

2023-07-27

PSNC and AMU research: How has COVID-19 affected outdoor activities?

As part of the cooperation between the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center and the Faculty of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, a study was carried out to present models of amateur sport participation during the COVID-19 restrictions on outdoor activities. The results of the research have been published in the latest issue of the university journal “Man and Society”.

The activities included the provision of tools and instructions for image content analysis and the collection of publicly available data on the social network. The implementation used mixed research methods: questionnaire survey data and information available through wearable devices. Physical activity was investigated based on the questionnaire results and existing data from the popular social network.The respondents were asked about the types of workouts, rhythms and preferences for using new technologies (devices and social networks used for uploading and sharing results) as part of their individual workouts.A collection of more than 11,000 images from 3138 users, with metadata downloaded from Instagram, was used to compare statements and content posted online. The data was processed using machine learning and software developed in Python. Analysis of the results showed a change in the intensity of the practice of the three selected activities. The dataset (images, tags and metadata) from the social network was also analysed. The results demonstrate the potential of triangulating methods and data to describe amateur physical activity and changes in these practices during COVID-19 restrictions in indoor and outdoor sports.

Representatives from the PSNC’s Data Engineering and Analytical Platforms Department participated in this study to increase their practical experience in analysing images and data from social networks, building on their previous knowledge in this area. The members of the team were Szymon Kupiński, Wojciech Andrzejewski and Adam Bykowski from PSNC’s Psychosensing Lab, as well as employees of the Faculty of Sociology at AMU: Jakub Isański and Mateusz Leszkowicz.

The full study has been published in the journal “Man and Society”.