Americans are spending more time at home after the pandemic

Since the pandemic, people have spent almost an hour less outside their homes every day. new research found it. This means you’ll have to spend less time working, shopping, or enjoying outdoor activities.

Researchers say these changes are here to stay and could have a big impact on the way we live and work.

This change could have some positives, such as less traffic and cleaner air. But it can also make people feel lonely and isolated.

Researchers believe technology is an important driver of these changes. During the pandemic, people have become accustomed to doing more things online, such as shopping and working.

This study looked at how people spent their time from 2003 to 2023. They found that even before the pandemic, people were gradually spending more time at home. But the pandemic has forced these changes to happen much faster.

Study published in a peer-reviewed journal Journal of the American Planning Association shows an overall reduction since 2019 of approximately 51 minutes of daily time spent on activities outside the home, plus a nearly 12-minute reduction in time spent on daily trips such as driving or using public transport.

The analysis, based on a survey of 34,000 Americans, is the first to look at time spent away versus staying home since the pandemic. Authors from Clemson University and UCLA documented a downward trend in time spent outside the home dating back to at least 2003, but Covid and its fallout has dramatically accelerated this shift indoors.

This shift toward “fast track to nowhere” promises to impact people and society on many levels, from psychology to sociology to economics. The urban planners of this paper argue that reducing the number of times people go out requires rethinking many planning and transportation strategies.

Their recommendations include repurposing office and retail properties, given the rise in people working and shopping from home. Restrictions on converting commercial buildings into housing should also be relaxed and space for delivery vehicles should be increased given the rise of online shopping.

“In a world where cities cannot rely on enslaved office workers and must work to attract residents, workers and customers, local officials may be eager to invest more in their remaining strengths,” says lead author Eric A. Morris, a professor at the City and Regional Planning at Clemson University, in press release.

“These include opportunities for recreation, entertainment, culture, the arts and more. Central cities can become centers of consumption rather than production.”

Less time for traveling and shopping

While it may require changes and some shifts, going nowhere faster can also have important benefits, such as reducing time spent on the road, which can reduce fuel consumption and emissions, as well as save people valuable time and money. On the other hand, staying at home more closely can also have downsides, such as social isolation.

The authors believe that improvements in information technology and the fact that people have learned to use these technologies in new ways during the pandemic are among the key drivers of this trend.

Other noteworthy findings include the fact that more purchases were made online, but this did not translate into a significant increase in home shopping time; the finding, according to the authors, is due to the fact that online shopping does not take nearly as much time as in-person shopping.

Perhaps surprisingly, TV viewing has not increased beyond the early peaks of the pandemic. More and more sports and exercise are now taking place at home, most likely because people have purchased home exercise equipment.

The authors say this “going indoors” had been going on for at least 16 years leading up to the pandemic. This builds on data from an earlier study they conducted which found that activity outside the home among adults fell by about 1.8 minutes per day per year from 2003 to 2019. Travel fell by about 30 seconds per day per year over the same period. .

Improvements in information and communications technology may partly explain this story, but other trends, such as the rapid increase in the amount of time Americans spend sleeping, also require further study, the authors conclude.