Living through the most unpredictable year of most people’s lifetime has made a visible impact on how we utilize our time and energy in all areas of our life- including social media. Initially, it kind of seemed like we would all go crazy from cabin fever, and there were a bunch of different protests again the shelter-in-place order where people basically expressed their right to not go stir crazy. Totally get it. But a few months in and staying home is something we’ve learned to live with, which brings me to the topic of this post.
We’re changing, and as we change, some really interesting trends have emerged in unlikely places. Parenting, hobbies, and child-like curiosity have made a comeback, not on Pinterest, but on Twitter, of all platforms. As if it wasn’t a big enough deal for us to basically turn Instagram into a news source, Twitter is becoming a place where people are interjecting regular life into Twitter’s news cycle feed.
The first noticeable change occurs in our family life. During the pandemic, tweets about parenting have increased 42%. This of course coincides with parents spending more time with their children as workplaces and schools shut down, and as local governments authorized shelter-in-place orders.
THEN, during all that time spent at home, people chose to discover new or resume old hobbies in lieu of social gatherings. Interest in cartooning spiked 111%. Interest in arts and crafts jumped 91% . Photography has experienced an uptick 78%.
As we endure the unthinkable, we’re actually learning together the importance of slowing down and taking care of ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and socially. Twitter reports that compared to 2019, 54% more people are prioritizing their mental health. This of course is directly related to the periods of extremely high stress, unease, and isolation that we endured during this pandemic.
There is a silver lining though. Charitable donations stayed up, even though unemployment numbers skyrocketed. This year has experienced a 585% increase of tweets about black owned companies, and according to The Great Refresh, a report published by National Research Group, 89% of American have used this pandemic as a time of reflection, and determining what matters the most to them.
It seems that somehow rather than the trials of 2020 making us more guarded, they’ve made us more patient, more compassionate, and less selfish. Way to go us!
SCHEDULE A CALL
Or click below to call
(212) 655-9879