Well if they're 8 to 18, then a sizeable number of them were having to go to school otherwise. In other words, one in three prefer staying home to going to school. The only surprise is that it's not higher.
One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
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Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#42So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…
> or basically a non-story
Are you kidding? Of all the possible consequences from completely changing the daily life of people "no overall change on happiness" was the least plausible one.
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#43The pandemic started towards the end of my masters and beyond the initial “oh shit” moment, I actually found it way better than I expected because for the first time in my life it was not weird for me to just stay at home, enjoy my own company and reduce socializing by a factor of 5 or more. Now when I actually have to interact with people it’s in a low enough volume that it’s enjoyable and not the crapshoot it used…
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Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#44So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…
Come on. Would you really have predicted, before a massive two-year pandemic, that it would have a mean-zero random impact on people's well-being? Let's keep ourselves honest here.
I thought it was a well recognized fact that humans adapt--I remember this even from my old high school psych class.
There's been a thousand studies about this (becoming a refugee, poverty vs. being rich, etc etc).
For most people, the only thing that has the power to permanently change your mental state is the death of someone very close to you (a spouse, child, etc) or forced exile from an identity forming social tie (eg. divorce, getting fired)
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#45So 1 in 3 felt happier, 1 in 3 felt more depressed, and the remaining 1 in 3 felt no major change. Sounds pretty much like a normal (gaussian) distribution, or basically a non-story. Guessing if they measured satisfaction on a scale, the majority were clustered near the "no major change" camp, as with any gaussian curve. As we already know, it turns out humans can adapt to things. By phrasing the headline result as "…
There's been rising awareness that researchers refrain from publishing neutral or "boring" results, this is a real problem because it skews the expectations not only of researchers but also the general public.
So, for me this is not a non-story and, in fact, somewhat unexpected. I'm hoping it'll trigger more in-depth research into what made those 33% happier. Some of the reasons are obvious but I suspect there's more nuance.
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#46Looking back, lockdowns sucked in the moment. But when I look at it in aggregate, my life improved dramatically. A big part of that was prior to the pandemic I would hit the clubs and bars every weekend. With bars and clubs closed I was forced to do other things, like go outside to nature. After a while the clubs re-opened but I realized I was no longer drawn to go to. My life on the weekends started to revolve aroun…
Definitely a bit of dejavu here - I'm getting ready to do the same thing and had a very similar experience during the pandemic. I no longer really like doing crowded loud social things, just seems constructed and unhealthy (maybe I'm just feeling old in my late 20's?). Decided to axe my NYC lease and move to CO.
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#47Of course. As students (born in the internet+smartphone era) they were primed all their life to feel freer in asocial cocooning
Except that one of the data points was that kids who were in full-time school were happier, so it's probably got to do with home life. Full-time school + more parents/siblings at home.
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#48[deleted]
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#49So, two in three young people say they felt sad or more or less the same during lockdown.
Re: One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown
#50> In fact, an almost identical number of students fell into each of the three categories: their mental wellbeing had improved; there had been no change; or they had experienced a deterioration to their wellbeing. This feels like a red flag on the conclusions. How does this compare to a normal time period? I wouldn’t be surprised if the random ups and downs of growing up normally resulted in a distribution where 1/3 o…
My take is that this is a counterpoint to the dominant media narrative that covid and lockdowns have been detrimental to the mental heath of nearly every child, usually based on anecdata. So even if these results _aren't_ different from a normal year, that's still meaningful. I think this is the crux of their conclusions too: > While the pandemic has undoubtedly had negative consequences for many, it is important to…
And it's not just true for children. The narrative from the media has been overwhelmingly "Stay-at-home has been bad for everyone! Nobody is happier! Everyone wants to get back to normal." Almost zero recognition that for some people it's been bad, for some, not much of a change, and for some, it's been a very positive experience.
Sure, some have pointed out that billionaires have gotten better off, but that's a non-story--when has that not been true?