Table 1.
Topics of tweets (n=1165) about indoor tanning on Twitter during statewide shutdowns (March 15 to April 30, 2020), by user type. Tweets could be coded in more than 1 tweet category.
| Tweet category by user type | Tweets, n (%) | Illustrative examplesa | ||||
| People who likely do not tan indoors (n=589 tweets) | ||||||
|
|
Mocking tanners, tan people, or the act of tanning | 562 (95.4) | Some people are about to meet their real girlfriends for the first time with the tanning bed closed hahaha. | |||
|
|
Mocking tweets mentioning Donald Trump | 448 (76.1) | Trump went in the tanning bed too long. Looks like a burnt Cheeto. | |||
|
|
Health warnings | 30 (5.1) | Sorry if you’re a person that uses the tanning bed, you are ruining your skin’s health and look! Proud to be pale and skin cancer free. I used to tan in a tanning bed, but you get older and your wrinkles hide small objects. |
|||
| People likely to tan indoors (n=402 tweets) | ||||||
|
|
Missing tanning | 260 (64.7) | I need the tanning bed to reopen, being pale makes me depressed. Having serious tanning bed withdrawals, this is killing me! |
|||
|
|
|
Appearance-related missing tanning | 77 (30) | I need the tanning bed to open back up. I look so pale I can’t stand it. | ||
|
|
|
Mood-related missing tanning | 13 (5) | I need the tanning bed to reopen, that’s my stress reliever! | ||
|
|
|
Withdrawal from indoor tanning | 12 (4.6) | Anyone else going through tanning bed separation anxiety? This hurts | ||
|
|
Expressing a desire to buy a home tanning bed, bought a tanning bed, or looking to use someone else’s home tanning bed | 90 (22.4) | I will buy a tanning bed if this quarantine continues. PSA who’s got a tanning bed for me to use?! I’m desperate. |
|||
|
|
Positive sentiment about tanning | 69 (17.2) | So happy I have a tanning bed during this, I need to be tan. | |||
|
|
Use of alternative behaviors | 15 (3.9) | Give me some recs for self-tanners since my tanning salon is closed! Ordered some self-tanner because this no tanning bed thing is killing me. |
|||
|
|
Arguments against messages that tanning is unhealthy or presents indoor tanning misinformation | 24 (6) | Let’s reopen the tanning salon, I think we can all agree that UV light will help kill the virus. | |||
|
|
Other | 27 (6.9) | Burnt my face in the tanning bed and now I don’t look good. | |||
| Tanning salon employees (n=4 tweets) | ||||||
|
|
Tanning salon employee chatter | 4 (100) | Will these mandatory closing impact the tanning salon I work at? | |||
| People whose tweets do not indicate whether they indoor tan (n=170 tweets) | ||||||
|
|
Unrelated to indoor tanning, tweets by people who do not indoor tan, or unclear whether the speaker is a tanner | 168 (98.8) | That tanning bed scene in the final destination movie is creepy. | |||
|
|
Argues against messages that tanning is unhealthy or presents indoor tanning misinformation | 2 (1.2) | I’m gonna open a coronavirus clinic, ordered a tanning bed and some Lysol. I’ll save everyone! | |||
aWhile all tweets included in the analysis were posted publicly, to protect the privacy of individuals who posted these tweets, we paraphrased the words of tweets in a way that prevents the content of the tweet from being searchable without changing its meaning.