BOOM Live has launched senior citizen workshops to increase COVID-19 awareness as well as tackle the deluge of misinformation surrounding the pandemic. BOOM has partnered with renowned actor Aasif Sheikh to produce five short informational films to highlight COVID-19 appropriate behavior.
Staying indoors for extended periods of time, being unable to meet friends and relatives, and the watching people die due to COVID-19 has taken a toll on everyone's mental health. To ensure that his viewers don't forget to care for their mental health, Aasif Sheikh tells them to maintain a daily routine which includes exercise and doing things they like as well as staying in regular touch with family and friends digitally.
The pandemic has caused an information overload driven by the the penetration of social media which can cause confusion and mistrust. Senior citizens, due to various technical and awareness constraints, are most vulnerable to this infodemic and are prone to falling for misinformation and fake news.
In a bid to tackle this information gap, BOOM will partner with senior citizen forums, organizations, and associations across India to host free online workshops titled "Information Overload in times of COVID-19" that are aimed to empower senior citizen participants to distinguish between news, opinion, propaganda, and analysis. BOOM has also launched five short film series that aims to build awareness around COVID-19 appropriate behavior, especially among senior citizens.