Beneficiality of the lockdown was irrespective of most factors like age,
gender, locality, education, marital status, family structure,
companions during the lockdown, occupation, current working status and
whether an individual is a working professional or a student. Income
however, was a significant factor. Those with the least income level,
i.e., less than Rs 70000, felt the lockdown was least beneficial. Like
life satisfaction, beneficiality of the lockdown too, was less for those
working from home but, with decreased working hours. Change in working
hours had not affected the beneficiality of those working from the
workplace.
Job satisfaction was irrespective of gender, marital status, education
level and locality. Differences were seen in the well-being of the rural
and the urban in Netherlands (Leeuwen & Lepage, 2020), which was not
the case here. Contrary to the common belief, level of income was not
related to job satisfaction levels. Like life satisfaction, job
satisfaction too was less for those working from home and had decreased
working hours. Change in working hours had not affected job satisfaction
of those working from the workplace. Among the people who actually
belonged to the workforce, but had not been able to work during the
lockdown, either from home or workplace, those who were getting paid as
usual had higher levels of life satisfaction than those who were getting
paid unusually less or not getting paid at all.
Giving some time to oneself is a great practice that helps in reducing
stress by doing something that one likes and benefits that person. It
was seen on further tests that younger people could make more time for
themselves, both before and during the lockdown phase. Married people
could not make as much time for themselves as those who were single.
Also, people from joint families were able to give less time to
themselves than those from nuclear families before and during the
lockdown. Contrary to what was expected, level of life satisfaction was
not much affected by the time people gave themselves.
Age of an individual was affecting the amount of time they spent on
social media platforms. Like time to oneself, younger people could
afford to spend more time on social media than the older. It was seen
that those of age group 15-23 spent more time than everybody else.
People who were single, comparatively spent more time on social media.
In joint families, the presence of a lot of family members, probably
keeps individuals more engaged and leaves them with less time to spend
on social media than the ones from nuclear families. It was seen that
during the lockdown, those who spent more than five hours on social
media had lower levels of life satisfaction. The reason could be the
presence of a lot of negativity and fake information over these
platforms that can only make a person feel anxious and uncertain about
everything.
Those with increased mutual understanding amongst the members of their
family found the lockdown to be more beneficial and had higher levels of
life satisfaction. But, on further tests, it was seen that these results
were not applicable to joint families. Those who thought their family
functioning had improved during the lockdown had higher levels of life
satisfaction and also found the lockdown more beneficial. Those who
claimed that their involvement with family members had increased during
the lockdown had considered the lockdown more beneficial and also had
higher levels of life satisfaction. Nuclear families showed the same
results, while no relationship between involvement with family and
beneficiality or life satisfaction during the lockdown was found in
joint families. Apart from the negative impact the confinement has
brought to people, it was seen that people have seen this as an
opportunity to work on their relationships with their families, and thus
found the lockdown to be beneficial.