Chasing the COVID Winter Blues Away

How Lockdowns Are Changing Where We Go and What We Consume

Even in a good year, winter can be long, dark and cold, but this year comes with a particular set of challenges. Countries, states, counties and cities are locking down again as COVID cases rise. While we try to be grateful for the good in our lives, it can be downright depressing reading the headlines, feeling trapped in our own homes, and worried about our distant loved ones.

This article in our “Investigations of Life” series looks at ways people have spent their time in their homes during the pandemic so far, in the hopes of inspiring readers to branch out into new winter pursuits.

The Internet of Things

Stuck at home, many of us have experienced a significant uptick in “screen time.” We were curious to see how internet usage and media consumption has changed during the pandemic, based on how people were allocating their screen time. The table below indicates how respondents to a survey were using the internet during the early months of the pandemic, broken down between two geographies and across four generations.

Not surprisingly, searching for COVID updates was at the top of the list in almost every category in both the U.S. and UK, and across all generations. Listening to music and watching movies/shows were a close second and third. Few respondents (less than 10% in each generation) appeared to be interested in staying off the internet.