2020 seems to be slipping away in what has been a crazy year filled with limbo for many. During this time people’s habits have been changing. Will 2020 be the year for #wellness? A report has been published by Facebook looking at the trends that have evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic to do with wellness.
Everyone seems to be picking up new and old hobbies from baking bread, painting, a desire to show everyone all of the miles they have racked up on Strava, not to mention the wine nights with friends via Zoom. Who even knew what Zoom was in February?
The Facebook report boasted increases in safer shopping, mindful wellness with more people turning to calming activities, increased support for local businesses, Gen Z’s support for causes, and people being more connected via relying on internet messages to stay in touch. All of the data was collected from a third-party source that assessed 34,000 consumers.
Some of the stats
In the US, shoppers are now valuing contactless shopping as a way of safely shopping with 71% of people saying this is key in deciding where to shop. In comparison to the other factor of price, at 79% and convenience (not in the report), that contribute to consumer decisions.
Clicks on searches for local businesses increased by 23% between February and May 2020 and local Facebook groups memberships grew by 3.3 times.
The shape of mindfulness and wellness also changed, with Facebook seeing a shift in the downloading of meditation apps and the live streaming of fitness classes. Other random activities mentioned in the report also growing were:
- The hashtag #quarantinebaking has come up over the social media sites around sourdough bread, known for being time-consuming.
- Conversations relating to acrylic painting have doubled over the year.
- Interest in fruit, vegetable, and herb gardens grown at home, also known as victory gardens have gone up by 39.5 times.
There are a lot of other factors not mentioned in the Facebook report that are affecting the way people are living through this pandemic. People have been on the move in new ways, with gym gear selling out, bike shortages and it was even hard to buy rollerblades there for a while. Bicycle sales even reported to had grown from 30% to 300% at one store.
Not to mention Netflix was recording record high subscriptions. But hey everyone had to watch Tiger King, and if you did not, you really did miss out. It was probably the best part of the initial lockdown phase…
Although there is evidence of this pandemic having more impacts on people’s wellbeing, everything is all still pretty mixed. There have definitely been a lot of negatives but hopefully, there might be some long-lasting positives. Wishing everyone #wellness.
