Consumer Behavior

“I’m Not a Doctor, But I Can Sew a Mask”: An Evaluation of Social Media Messages Regarding Home Sewing PPE for the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020.

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Abstract

Amidst the beginning of the COVID10 pandemic emerged a widespread shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) specifically N95 face masks. Home sewer responded quickly to request from medical professionals to fill help fill the PPE shortage. In order to share their participation and recruit more individuals to sew masks as the United States entered a national quarantine period, many home sewers turned to social media to communicate. The aim of this research was to understand the messages shared among home sewers regarding their mask sewing participation. Due to its popularity among home sewers, Instagram was used to search social media hashtags to identify messages related to home sewing face masks for the pandemic.  THis netnographic (Kozinets, 2010) approach to qualitative research revealed five overarching themes: This is helping me, Call to action, Do it right, Rising to the occasion, and I'm ready for this.

Keywords: Control, PPE, Pandemic, COVID19, sewing, Face mask

How to Cite:

Martindale, A. K., Armstead, C. C. & McKinney, E. C., (2020) ““I’m Not a Doctor, But I Can Sew a Mask”: An Evaluation of Social Media Messages Regarding Home Sewing PPE for the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020.”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 77(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.11990