Corona Daily 045: Extra Screen Time

With no commute, no holidays, no restaurants or bars, and no parties; the world spent excessive time glued to a screen. Now with vaccination and easing of lockdowns, what will happen to those habits? Is our screen time or music listening likely to go down dramatically? An article in the Economist tries to answer these questions, based on the lockdown and post-lockdown data.

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A full-time worker by saving on the commute roughly got 15% more time. The fortunate workers who retained their jobs saved a lot more money. Americans’ spend on recreation and holiday went down by 30%. Time and money going up together is a rare event. People in rich countries, and well-off people in other countries, switched the saved time to screens. In Britain, time spent online went up 20% to 5 hours a day. Before the pandemic, 10% British people had no internet, now only 5%.

Smartphone users installed 143 billion new apps, in the process more than doubling the growth rate of the previous year.

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TV and video viewing went up by 80 minutes every week. Video-gaming had the biggest jump. Youngsters spent 30% more time on games. While music listening grew modestly by 5%, audio books and podcasts listening rose by 25%.

Surprisingly, people read more printed books as well. Young women were the heaviest readers. Some read to kill time, but usefulness was important. Cooking and gardening books were bought in record numbers. In children’s books, parents preferred “home learning” books.

Netflix was a pandemic success story. Possibly as a result, in those countries where cinemas are open, new releases are happening at the same time on the giant and the small screen. Earlier, producers wanted a window before releasing the movie in the web.  

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Technology was a booster to screen time. As little as fifteen years ago, we had dozens of devices in our house for entertainment. Television, DVD player, CD (or audio cassette player), computer, music stereos, video gaming console. A mobile phone was for communication, rather than entertainment.

Now a smartphone or tab has replaced all those devices. We can have non-stop entertainment without ever leaving the device or our sofa. Earlier, bored people switched from one TV channel to another. Now, they can effortlessly move from a Netflix series to a game to news to music to reading a Kindle book.

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Research shows audio listening boomed. People listened to more of everything, music (5% increase), podcasts and audio books (25% up). This trend is probably supported by the marketing efforts of streaming companies. For licensed music, they have to pay hefty fees. They are commissioning podcasts themselves. In April 2021, podcasts continue to eat into the share of music. Recognising the trends, Amazon has launched Audible, its audio-book company.

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The biggest lockdown boom was “Gaming”. Last year, people installed 56.2 billion gaming apps, tripling the year-on-year growth. Gaming is essentially popular with Generation Z, the under 25s. This is one habit that is considered a “sticky habit”. In 2021, the apps downloading continues to surge. Roblox is a popular platform on which youngsters make and share their own games. In the first quarter of 2021, players spent nearly 10 billion hours on this platform, compared to 5 billion in the first Q of 2020.

Deloitte’s survey found something interesting. American generations other than generation Z named TV and films as their favorite form of home entertainment. Generation Z ranked them last, after video games, music, web browsing and social media. The survey will make TV and movie producers nervous.

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People spent an extra 40 minutes a week on social networks, and 30 minutes more consuming news, mostly through the social media platforms. Last month, Facebook said the increased levels of engagement during lockdown have started falling now.

For dating apps, such as Tinder, sign-ups fell in every wave, in line with a wave. The latest data shows people are making up for lost time. The owners of Tinder have told the shareholders to look forward to a “summer of love”.

Ravi