The Pandemic and Rising Web Usage

By: Dante Parente

When billions of people were sent into lockdown a little over two years ago, we did not know what would happen. We did know, however, that people were remarkably good at adapting to changes. Covid was no exception to the people, and adapt they did, especially when it came to web usage.

Covid Created a Rise in Web Usage

In a September 2021 Pew Research Center poll, 90% of Americans said the internet was important to their daily lives during the pandemic and 58% said the internet was essential to their daily lives. Simply put, Americans adapted to the situation. These numbers make sense as a large majority of people were forced to work, have class and/or shop from home, just to name a few things that put more Americans online.

Everyday activities became online affairs and mobile consumers created new online habits that they will most likely keep for years to come. Online grocery shopping and doctor’s appointments are just two things that arose with the pandemic. The average time spent on mobile devices grew 13.8% in a year; thus, web usage rose because of the new normal.

It is fair to say that web usage most likely would have risen without Covid. Today’s world, as we knew, is a digital age driven by online convenience. People want to do daily activities from the comfort of their homes and avoid the hastle of having to drive to a clothes store or grocery market. However, the rise would not have been this quick. As seen in the chart below, web usage in the U.S. exponentially increased by 30% over the span of two months. Just in that short time frame—from right before Covid to its onset—internet usage rose immensely as people were forced to do even more things online.

Web usage in the U.S. increased by 30% from January 17, 2020 to April 3, 2020.

Pandemic Mobile Habits that Increased Web Usage

As web usage grew, so did more convenient mobile habits. As stated earlier, Americans—and people as a whole—are really good at adapting to changing circumstances. When adapting, Americans grew fond of certain mobile habits that they will keep with them for the foreseeable future. Let’s take a look at one of those habits below ⬇️:

Youth Athletic Event Streaming

Before Covid, youth athletic event streaming was a ghost town. Meaning, it was virtually non-existent. Now, let’s throw Covid into play. When athletic events started back up, spectators were not allowed at the contests. So grade schools and high schools alike began streaming their events on YouTube, Facebook and various other streaming services. They realized that parents—as they should be—are quite fond of watching their children compete in athletic events.

Fast forward to today, most of those schools are still streaming all their athletic contests. Some schools, like Baldwin High School, turned streaming into a full-fledge sports network complete with play-by-play and color commentary for basketball and football games.

Other schools have switched from YouTube, which is free, to the subscription-based NFHS Network, but they still provide streaming of their matches in some capacity. By switching to a subscription-based system, these schools are adapting to the times even more by profiting off of their events. They charge admission to those who attend in person. By watching on the NFHS Network, they are essentially charging you admission to watch online as well.

By streaming online, these schools are creating a bigger audience for their events and bringing in more revenue to their schools. By creating bigger audiences, more athletes can be seen by potential college recruiters. This habit is here to stay and it is a good thing for the consumers, athletes, parents and schools.

Increased Web Usage Downsides

While the increase in web usage certainly brought about positives when it came to convenience, it also brought negatives and harsh realities when it came to mental health.

Screen time ⬆️ Mental Health ⬇️

As more Americans, specifically teenagers and younger sects of the population, spend more time staring at a screen, mental heath declines in most circumstances. Take online school for example, students were deprived of the ability to have face-to-face interactions and companionship with fellow peers. When they couldn’t be in person, younger people turned to their devices to fill the void. Time normally spent with others was instead spent on social media, the internet or other online services. For many people, understanding their problem is as simple as a basic law of physics: as screen time goes up, mental health goes down.

38.4 % of all internet users say the internet has not helped them cope with mental illness.

As seen in the above chart, the internet has not helped people cope with mental illness. A resounding 38.4% of all internet users said the internet did not help them cope with mental health challenges. Additionally, just 22.4% of respondents with high internet said yes.

Society has become disordered in the pandemic and the needs of those with mental challenges are not being helped by the wide access to the internet and its increased usage.

“Several studies have confirmed the association between excessive Internet usage and anxiety, depression, sleep quality, and physical activity.” So what does this mean? It means that yes, web usage is awesome and convenient for many Americans. However, it is harmful to younger Americans who need to be out having in-person, face-to-face interactions to improve their mental standing.

Potential Solutions to Curb Teen Web Usage

To help solve or at least begin to fix the mental health challenges teens face because of their increased web usage, parents/guardians should consider imposing restricted access times or parental controls on their child’s devices. In short, the mental health struggle teens face because web usage is not going away at large. On an individual case basis, parents should consider those tools to help their son or daughter through difficult times.