The 2 types of people you’ll find in #QuarantineLife

9th April 2020

 

With half the world now under lockdown, #QuarantineLife is quite literally the new normal. 

In this strange new environment, locked in at home for weeks, maybe even months at a time, we’re beginning to see two types of personalities emerge online: the strivers, and the slobs. 

Initially, most humans seem to want to put their best foot forward. 

Enter the strivers: these are the go-getters MAKING THE MOST of this time with meditation, strict plank routines, catching up on books to read, and learning new skills. Those people keep a tight schedule even under these difficult conditions.

https://twitter.com/plntbasedcutie/status/1240043969116901376

And then, there’s the slobs: those who let themselves go, trapped in their pajamas, merging with the couch, watching porn, and eating their hearts out. 

https://twitter.com/aatifkhawaja/status/1242669817284431873

But the thing is, there’s a striver and a slob inside each one of us. And as #QuarantineLife turns from days into weeks into months, some of us become different from who we thought we were.  

How Strivers become Slobs

 

In less than two weeks, we saw slobbing posts grow significantly, just shy of overtaking striving.  

We analyzed 564,397 global English-language posts relating to people’s #QuarantineLife on Twitter, Instagram and Reddit over two periods of time, one in mid-March, and the other one in early April. 

We found that while striving seemed to be by far the dominant mood in the earlier period when #QuarantineLife was still novel, after a few weeks locked inside our homes, slobbing seems to be taking over our personalities.  

https://twitter.com/janehallett/status/1247134695546130432

We also investigated people’s top overall concerns, priorities and interests during their #QuarantineLife at the two different stages (mid-March and Early April).

Changing concerns at different stages of #quarantinelife

While most conversations remained relatively stable across the two time periods, the one to take the biggest hit in April was working from home (-2%), as any novelty well and truly wore off.

Streaming, on the other hand, also fell (-2%), while aesthetics (+2%) and cooking (+2%) saw an upturn in interest.

And so, despite the overall turn towards slobbishness, there are indications that humanity isn’t lost to the depths of the sofa just yet. There's still some hope for the strivers as we enter the next phase of this #QuarantineLife.

Explore more #NewNormal trends.

 

 

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