COVID-19 has changed our lives in every aspect and recreational activities were no different. Various trends were observed which show the overall change in recreational activities over the course of the pandemic.
With most of the world imposing lockdown when COVID struck, sports were immediately affected. Playgrounds, stadiums, and grounds were all closed. Due to a restriction on public meetings, competitive sports, as well as team sports, suffered a major setback. Major sporting events such as the Olympics and Grand Prix were either canceled or postponed.
With the downfall of outdoor sports, online games increased tremendously. Steam, the largest online video game distributor, reported that in 2020 at the peak of COVID, there were 120.4 million monthly active users on the platform. The players also spent 50.7% more hours playing games compared to previous years.
These recreational trends are also proven in the surveys we conducted. For the age group of 12 to 18, the average sports time before COVID was 2.5 hours and that dropped to 0.8 hours indicating a loss of nearly 68%. At the same time, online gaming rose from 1.5 hours to 3.5 hours indicating an increase of 133.33%.
Meanwhile, social media usage, as well as online watching, also increased. During the pandemic, social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok saw exponential growth, with the latter experiencing growth of nearly 38%. Online watching service, Netflix says its subscriptions increased from 167.1 million to 203.7 million during the pandemic. In our locally conducted surveys, online watching increased from an average of 0.9 hours to 3.4 hours with a 277.78% increase.
These trends are a cause of worry for everyone as they show the steep decline in outdoor sports along with the exponential rise in screen time. Something needs to be done and our project aims to do just that.