Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and preventive measures such as social distancing massively affected individuals’ activities in different spaces. For example, social spaces such as restaurants, parks, and movie theaters are closed. To understand how adapted practices have changed the meanings and use of different spaces in the context of the pandemic, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 individuals living alone in a Midwestern state of the USA, focusing on changes in activities and spaces where these activities used to take place. Our findings revealed that non-technological (e.g., making slight adjustments, finding alternatives) and technological (e.g., transitioning to the virtual sphere) adaptation strategies changed the relationships between space and activity while reshuffling and decoupling activities from their usual spaces during the pandemic. Based on the findings, we propose a framework illustrating different space-activity dimensions to reflect the evolved relationships between space and activity. The framework will facilitate exploring associated challenges and opportunities for potential research and design of technology for adapted activities decoupled from the physical spaces. Towards that goal, we present design implications for future socio-technical systems to support adapting space and activities in the context of COVID-19.
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Notes
For clarity, the term space will be used through out the rest of the paper.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the participants for their time and for sharing their experiences with us. We also thank Ann Armstrong for her useful feedback on the work. This work was supported in part by the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement, the Indiana University Grand Challenge Precision Health Initiative, the National Science Foundation Grant No. 1629468, and the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2030859 to the Computing Research Association for the CI Fellows Project.
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The work was partially funded by the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement, the Indiana University Grand Challenge Precision Health Initiative, and the National Science Foundation Award #s. 1629468, 2030859, and 1948286.
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NN collected and analyzed data, and drafted the manuscript; CFC, CC, KC revised the manuscript; CC, KC supervised. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Nurain, N., Chung, CF., Caldeira, C. et al. “It’s Like Living a Different Life, Going to the Moon”: Rethinking Space and Activity in the Context of COVID-19. Comput Supported Coop Work (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-024-09493-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-024-09493-y