CONCERNS OF EVERYDAY LIFE. OBJECTS AND CULTURAL PRACTICES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the main findings of an investigation of daily life experiences during covid-19 confinement, in which we paid particular attention to day-to-day concerns and the strategies that subjects brought into play to cope with them. The methodology was based on the qualitative analysis of eleven auto-ethnographic diaries made by university students and six subsequent interviews with the same subjects, always focused on their cultural and informational practices during isolation. We identified three main problems in this period. First, the radical change in daily routines as a result of the increased use of domestic space. Second, the need for reliable media information about prevention practices and social norms in a context traversed by over-information and fake news. Thirdly, the limitation of the set of social relations due to the regulations of the pandemic, which made loneliness a feeling in constant latency. From the analysis of the records, we argue that the use of different objects (computers, cell phones, books, musical instruments, etc.) was central to deal with everyday problems, either because of their ability to mobilize cultural practices, manage emotions, establish symbolic boundaries between activities, create new temporalities, or become a resource for sociability. We believe that recovering these experiences allows us to open up questions to think about daily life in the post-pandemic period.