The months we spent too much time at home- have they changed us?
The government restrictions during the pandemic created a time that has thrown the home in to sharp relief, and has strained each of our relationships with our own four walls. Many people have in turns felt both trapped, as we were largely confined to our homes, and comforted by the protection and security they provided.
With so much more time spent at home, many turned their attention to feathering the nest with DIY materials becoming as scarce as loo roll or flour once was. Was this simply a case of idle hands or is there a deeper human instinct at play here?
It has been more than 70 years since Maslow first published his hierarchy of needs, but it certainly remains relevant and is particularly useful to revisit in the context of the upheaval wrought by the Covid pandemic. As much of the clutter in many of our lives (rush hour commutes, hastily bought and eaten desk lunches etc) was suddenly cleared out, people began to murmur that perhaps we don’t need these things, and never did. What else then might we not need? And what needs have we been neglecting in our busy, abounding, stimulating 21st century lives?
In the five tier hierarchy, the first four represent ‘deficiency needs’ (people are motivated to fulfil these needs when they are unmet and this motivation grows the longer they are deprived of them). The top tier is ‘growth needs’ which do not stem from a lack of something, rather that they are a persons desire to strive to grow as a person and become the best version of themselves- this need does not dissipate when met but can increase upon engagement. Importantly, Maslow notes that while humans must meet the lower level deficit needs before moving on to growth needs this is not an “all or none” situation, rather these lower level needs can merely be “more or less” satisfied.
Just to note, I am not a psychologist so I’m not technically qualified to posit my theory but I’m going to do it anyway!
I believe that for those in the affluent modern world, there is such a disproportionate emphasis placed on markers of growth needs being achieved that many of us were operating with our lower tier needs falling by the wayside. This is not to say that people are going hungry and have no friends because they are too occupied with getting a promotion, but may be eating food that is bad for them or unenjoyable and being reluctant to commit to seeing friends in case something comes up at work. In this way I think it is worthwhile giving some thought to the quality of our need fulfilment rather than simply whether or not it is fulfilled (eg. The pasta salad bought and eaten on the train in five minutes versus the one made from scratch and enjoyed at home with family).
The huge numbers of people either on furlough or working from home saw a big increase in ‘hours in the day’ available to people. Combine this with closed shops, pubs, cinemas, gyms etc and the question of what people would fill their new spare time with presented and interesting opportunity.
What we all saw was surprisingly old fashioned looking with lots of baking, growing vegetables, and painting garden fences. We did laugh at ourselves for this, and much comment was made on Instagram about the comfort of these simple tasks in scary times under a photo of a loaf of banana bread. But I think what we can learn from this experience is that we don’t simply want our basic needs fulfilled in a basic way and that our belonging, self esteem and creative outlets and sense of achievement can also be found in fulfilling our basic needs in a high quality way.
I hope that one outcome on the other side of this tumultuous time is a rebalancing of priorities and a redistribution of time that favours going back to basics.
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