by The measles outbreak in Texas got my attention, if for no reason other than the fresh memories of Covid and that horror’s continued haunting. The pandemic’s residues always seem to be hiding behind a fern or secreted in a closet waiting to lurch out and scare the bejeesus out of us.
If there is any salve for the social wounds of Covid, it might be the refuge we found in family and in our homes. This is intuitive, because where else were we going to go? Well, a study recently published in the journal Sociological Science provides empirical evidence of our reemphasis of the home during Covid and it explores some of the effects.
The implications for home furnishings industries are rather obvious.
Conducted by Patrick Sharkey, the William S. Tod professor of sociology and public affairs on the faculty of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, the study shows that over the past 20 years, Americans spent “substantially” more time at home. While this was true long before Covid, the pandemic accelerated the trend.
According to Sharkey’s research, on an average day in 2022, U.S. adults spent one hour and 39 minutes more time at home than they did in 2003, or about 10% more time being spent at home on a daily basis.
The published study, “Homebound: The long-term rise in time spent at home among U.S. adults,” is good news for home furnishings, especially when housing starts are so abysmal, but these potential benefits come at considerable social cost. The research also shows evidence of the consequences of social isolation: We aren’t as happy at home as we were in out and about in our communities.
“The rise in time at home helps to explain another trend that has received substantial attention: growing time spent alone,” Sharkey wrote.
‘Go outside and play!’
The time we spend in the primary activities of life hasn’t changed; what’s changed is where we are doing these six basic activities. They include work, school, eating and drinking, leisure activities without a computer, sports and exercise, and religious and spiritual activities. On a pie chart of how we spend our waking hours, these six slices remained fairly stable over the 20-year period studied, but we increasingly engaged in these activities more so at home.
These activities account for more than 70% of the overall rise in time spent at home.
“The home has become a more common setting for virtually every category of activity and among each subgroup that I examined,” Sharkey wrote. “The rise in time at home is associated with less time with friends, for instance, and more time with family.
Sharkey’s research affirms the takeaways from another scholar, Robert Putnam, whose book, Bowling Alone, remains one of the more influential sociological studies ever published. Putnam’s ideas about social capital have been invaluable in my own research.
The book’s title is a reference to the long-term drift away from civic and communal association, including bowling leagues, and the resulting retreat into the family room and a domestic world of screens.
Putnam showed declines in membership in community organizations, attendance at public meetings, volunteering, informal socializing and activities like having friends over for dinner. For his study, Sharkey relies on data collected by the American Time Use Survey, and this data shows increases in the sort of institutional isolation Putnam observed.
‘Go to your room!’
The largest changes in time spent at home were found among younger people. Young adults ages 15 to 24 spent nearly an hour more time at home per day in 2019 as compared with 2003, and by 2022 this group spent more than two hours at home relative to 2003.
The change from 2003 to 2022 was similar for 25- to 34-year-olds, but was smaller for older adults and smaller still for adults over the age of 55. All age groups, however, spent more than an hour more at home in 2022 than in 2003.
If you’re wondering about gender, these trend lines are a bit more pronounced among men than women, among those employed relative to those unemployed, and among high-income individuals relative to low income.
The list of activities we spent less time doing, because we still only have 24 hours per day, includes shopping for consumer items, socializing, volunteering and traveling. Because all of these activities are more likely to take part outside the home, the declines are not surprising.
Also not surprising is that we spent more time sleeping and using the computer for leisure.
‘Get to work!’
Home office producers will be glad to see that in 2003, just 13% of the average American adult’s work-related activity was conducted at home but that by 2022 that percentage had more than doubled. Estimates from the American Community Survey note that nearly 28 million people worked from home by the end of 2021, more than triple the number recorded in 2019, and the highest number and percentage (18%) since the ACS began recording data in 2005.
Dining manufacturers, too, should be encouraged. The percentage of time eating and drinking spent at home rose by three percentage points from 2003 to 2019, and then by another nine percentage points in 2022.
Also not a surprise: We love us our smartphones. The data show long-term growth in the use of mobile phones and laptop computers, as well as more frequent use of both technologies outside the home.
Despite all the social media activity, despite always-on connectivity, despite the promise of “friends,” “likes” and “shares,” we aren’t as happy as perhaps we thought we might be. Sharkey’s research shows that activities at home are linked with reductions in reported happiness. Even Aristotle knew this would be the case. We find the morally good or virtuous life only in community, he believed, and in circumstances in which we flourish. I don’t care what latest, greatest version of iPhone a person has, that weapon of mass distraction cannot facilitate a morally virtuous life or a state of flourishing.
‘Cover me! I’m going outside!’
As Sharkey’s narrative points out, the rise of gun violence certainly doesn’t inspire a desire to leave the comforts of home, another possible factor keeping us inside.
“The long-term rise of mass shootings, along with other high-profile acts of terrorism, are plausible explanations for a retreat from public spaces,” Sharkey wrote.
Finally, the growing size of the average U.S. home contributes to our penchant to remain in our homes.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median size of a newly completed single-family home in 2022 was 2,300 square feet, or 20% bigger than in 1990. That additional space needs to get furnished, so this trend, too, helps to mitigate the effects of two years of sluggishness in home starts.
I wish Sharkey had also looked at the growth of man caves. I’ve certainly plowed a lot of money into mine, resulting in more time ensconced in its comforts.
