How Covid-19 disrupts normal modes of working, socialising, travelling in youth

The pandemic has disrupted normal modes of working, socialising, dining, and travelling, but the degree to which reinvented modes of living and working would persist after the pandemic subsides remains unclear.

Study shows that the COVID-19 has disrupted normal modes of working, socialising, dining, and travelling among youth in the United States.

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According to a survey published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on Thursday (local time), the potential behaviour of US adults have changed after the coronavirus pandemic hit the world.

The pandemic has disrupted normal modes of working, socialising, dining, and travelling, but the degree to which reinvented modes of living and working would persist after the pandemic subsides remains unclear.

Deborah Salon and colleagues conducted a national representative survey of 7,613 US adults between July and October 2020, asking about pre-pandemic, pandemic-era, and expected post-pandemic behaviours pertaining to telecommuting, restaurant patronage, air travel, online shopping, transit use, car commuting, use of walking and biking, and home location.

The results of the Survey also indicated an expected rise in online grocery shopping, rise in walking and biking, decline in restaurant patronage, and decreased demand for air travel, especially for business. According to the authors, the results suggest that post-pandemic life will feature behavioral changes that linger from the COVID-19 era and carry potential policy implications.

Participants reported an increase in expected telecommuting, from 13 per cent before the pandemic to 26 per cent after the pandemic. However, the increase in telecommuting was not equitably distributed across the population.

While the air travel demand dropped 95 per cent at the height of the pandemic. The date of the study indicated that more than 40 per cent of business travellers expect to travel less frequently post-pandemic.

Approximately half expected to continue to purchase grocery online at least a few times a month post-pandemic, but nearly 90 per cent of them also expect to shop in-store for groceries at least a few times a month. Among all US residents, 30 per cent expect to shop grocery online at least a few times a month post-pandemic, up from 21 per cent pre-pandemic.

Socializing behaviour has increased during the pandemic in many US cities. Post pandemic, 30 per cent of US residents plan to take walks more frequently than they did before the pandemic, and nearly 15 per cent plan to bike more.

The COVID Future survey dataset that is the basis for this study was collected between July and October 2020. The study protocol was approved by Institutional Review Boards at both Arizona State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Online consent was obtained from all survey respondents.