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Pandemic Habits Showcase How Society Is Changing

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on August 16, 2021

The top 5 pandemic habits that Americans will continue throughout the rest of 2021 are:

  • Going on walks around their local area (27% of Americans will continue)
  • Regularly calling close family (23%)
  • Cooking lunch rather than buying it (21%)
  • A form of regular exercise (15%)
  • Buying things online rather than going in-store (15%)

Sparking creative new business ventures and side hustles

  • The pandemic prompted nearly 1 in 5 (17%) young Americans aged 18-34 to try out ‘side-hustles.’ Though not all of these will stick, it speaks to how the pandemic sparked creativity and resourcefulness among these age groups.
  • Women were also far more likely to try and pick up new habits during the pandemic than men, being more likely to have said they had tried 23 of the 31 habits tested in the study, with the biggest disparities in:
    • Arts and crafts (21% of women vs. 8% of men)
    • Cooking lunch rather than buying it (33% vs. 21%)
    • Baking (25% vs. 13%)
    • Regularly calling close family (33% vs. 21%)

Wardrobe and beauty habits

  • In positive news for beauty salons, we see a drop in intent to keep up at-home beauty rituals with 13% taking these up during the pandemic, but only 7% planning to continue.
  • Younger generations were more likely to say they started dressing how they wanted rather than how others expected them to since March 2020 as 28% of 18-24-year-olds tried this and one in five (22%) plan to continue doing so.
  • Meanwhile, only 14% of Americans aged 35-54 picked up this habit, and 10% plan to continue doing so.
  • Highlighting the particular pressure women face compared to men when it comes to maintaining their appearance, one in five women (22%) took the pandemic as an opportunity to try dressing how they want, rather than how others expect them to. In the meantime, only half as many men (11%) said the same.

Socializing

  • While 15% of Americans say they tried socializing virtually during the pandemic, only 5% say they plan to continue.
  • Similarly, while 11% of Americans tried having “big nights in, rather than big nights out” during the pandemic, only 6% plan to keep this up.
  • This trend holds true for the dating world as well – only 2% of Americans plan to continue going on virtual dates through the rest of 2021.

Read more about the research from Opinium here.