People missed friends most during lockdown; 10-year-old Ahmedabad boy conducts survey

The lockdown was a tough time for the world, even though different countries went into lockdown and came out of it at different times. Collectively, it was an experience born out of an unanticipated situation that no one could deal with on their own. 

Slowly now, the world is getting used to the new normal. We're still fighting COVID-19, we're still coping with staying home more than we are used to, but at least we aren't all under lockdown.

10-year-old Aarav Roy from Ahmedabad, used the time during the lockdown and conducted his own research into this strange anomaly of this gloomy time. 

Aarav's research into the lockdown

The lockdown was a tough enough period but for researchers in the making and those working on their writing, it was a period to really get under the skin of a subject. Aarav Roy a 10-year-old living in Ahmedabad, conducted his very own research into what the COVID-19 lockdown was like.

The youngster conducted a full-fledged survey and covered all the basics from data collection to interpretation. His findings are a collection of observations and data which reveal some facts that aren't so hard to believe. 

When asked, why should anyone read his research, he replied;

You should really spend time reading this article because this article reveals things you never knew. Did you ever know that people in this lockdown miss friends more than malls and restaurants? Did you know that people cooked their meals more during the lockdown? Did you know the drop in the number of times that people stepped out of their house? This whole article reveals the findings. Also, this article is specially made for all of you to read. From this survey, people can get to know what people feel in this lockdown and how much people have changed after this lockdown."

He proceeds to give us a clear picture of the situation after a short introduction to COVID-19. He wanted to understand people's views of the lockdown and so conducted a survey across India and the USA on which he received 141 responses. He begins by giving us a gender and age break-up of his survey responses. 

In his findings, Aarav shed light on what people missed most during the lockdown, in his responses, from 29 kids, 9 teenagers and 100 adults. 84 missed their friends and 24 missed restaurants, similarly over 24 missed their schools or jobs while few, 6 missed visiting the malls. 

In the next graph, Aarav shows that 59 people 'hated' not going outside, 47 hated not being able to meet their friends. Curiously, 21 people hated wearing masks while 11 hated online classes.

In Aarav's findings, more people cooked their own meals frequently during the lockdown, closely followed by 42 people who did their own household chores. 

In his graph on how many days people went out during the week under lockdown, 34 who were the majority, went out one day in the entire week, while 15 went out on 7 days. Compare this to his findings on how many times people went out in the week before lockdown, and we see 78 people among his responses went out on all 7 days a week and only 1 person had gone out only one day in the week before lockdown. 

Curiously, things like being unable to go outside or missing the social contact of our friends, doing more household chores or cooking, are all findings we've put a finger on but never quite picturized the way Aarav has managed to do so.

The goal and process of the research

Setting out on a quest to understand how people experienced the lockdown, Aarav says his goal was to, interpret the responses he got. Outside of his research, Aarav is a fifth-grader, he likes to play the guitar, Badminton and enjoys drawing and painting as well.

Aarav tells IBTimes about his inspiration behind his Coronavirus lockdown research, "I was learning excel from my mother and I had to make a survey on anything you like to do for further data analysis. I chose a lockdown survey because I wanted to know how people have changed in the lockdown and also expected more response because the lockdown was going on. After I received the survey results, I was astonished because I got to know that more people are missing friends in the lockdown and only a few are missing restaurants and malls." 

Seeing the lockdown as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage Aarav utilized his time to seek answers to questions. Aarav says about the overwhelming response he got from people, "I did this survey about the lockdown because I thought everybody in this lockdown must be feeling so unhappy and sad as they cannot meet their friends, loved ones or family, go to their favourite restaurants or places. Before, I used to go or talk on the telephone and get their opinions, thoughts, and views about everything such as their favourite things."

"I decided not to lose hope about collecting data and I cannot call random people or send each question to a random email id. I thought for a few minutes and got an idea. I made a survey! I added some questions that I was curious about. My parents sent the survey on their WhatsApp and finally, I got 141 responses, a three-digit number. I was taken aback. Now, I am trying to find more fascinating and curious facts from my analysis," he added. 

Aarav aptly summarised the lockdown for us. What the lockdown taught us is to make the most of a situation. The lockdown was a period of uncertainty, and productivity was hard to come by, yet Aarav was able to make the most of it.

What did you do during the lockdown?