By Henry Parish
May 2025 saw the Mass Observation Project gather information about how British everyday life had been impacted by Covid-19. Its panel of life writers were prompted to reflect on how aspects of their lives, from work, homelife and health, to attitudes towards technology and socialisation, had changed five years on from Covid.
This directive was compelling on several counts. First, I had lived through the pandemic, seeing all the major addresses by the major figures, but wanted to see it from a different angle. These writers represent the effects of global events upon relatively local, everyday people. So many books on this period will be written from the perspective of those in power. Mass Observation, however, afford the opportunity to read history bottom up. Second, being an English Language and Linguistics student, I was fascinated by the opportunity to see, away from a textbook, how elements of language could be seen to betray cognitive processes.
This only made the honour of receiving funding through the University of Sussex’s Junior Research Associate scheme greater. Upon receiving the documents, I began cleaning them to ensure they were machine-readable. After only that which answered the directive remained, they were uploaded and tagged for respondent characteristics. This included gender, social class (worked out using an occupation index), region, whether it was typed or hand-written, and the decade in which respondents were born. Next, everything was checked to ensure it lined up. This, frankly, was a most painful process. Finding one document out of 223 which did not align was nightmarish.
The satisfaction, however, came out of reading the documents and working with the Mass Observation team. Having toured The Keep and seen in person a selection of the documents that I am working with, the attention to detail given to caring for documents decades, and in some cases centuries, old is breathtaking. Even more humbling were the reflections offered by the respondents. More than simply reflections, these were intimate memories likely to last, within some families, generations.
Close reading proceeded more distant, systematic, analyses. First, that close reading suggested respondents felt guilt when they reported feeling joy during lockdown. “When I look back, my overriding feeling about the pandemic is that not only did I and my family come through it completely unscathed – for which I am very grateful – but that it was also a time of peace and quiet and joy – for which I feel very guilty” (H8421). Another writer concurred, speaking in self-conscious terms while looking back with nostalgia at the quiet which established. “It is hard for me to say, without sounding callous or mean, that for me I enjoyed some aspects of the lockdown. There was a peace that descended on our towns and cities that was unprecedented…” (D4736).
Many were quick to emphasise the time’s majesty. One called it “… extraordinary times to have lived through, even at this short distance” (C6574). Another said it was an “… almost dream-like time, especially during the lockdowns” (M7145). Others still see it as unbelievable. “I look back five years to the beginning of the pandemic, and it seems hardly credible that the whole thing happened” (F7091). The suggestion it was nothing more than a nightmare implies normal, waking life soon returned. This view chimed with other writers. “The pandemic has changed the world in many ways, just not mine” (C8263)!
This is not to say, however, that those writers’ views were universal. Writers reported Covid as being integral in perceiving time, saying: “… I often describe events as being pre- or post-COVID” (C8261). Others even reported describing grandchildren as a “Covid baby” (K7522). Impacts of Covid are hard to judge by this alone, but it does suggest the time left an indelible mark.
An additional shift, homeworking, provided greatest grounds for dis-agreement. One dissenter did so on grounds of generational inequality. “I think 100% remote work is isolating and I really feel for young people starting out on careers as without the access to senior colleagues I think they will struggle” (M8416). Another decried falling workplace discipline. “I have noted how elusive it can be to get hold of people who are working from home. It can give you a flexibility that isn’t necessarily compatible with standard working hours” (M6897). Those in support felt it granted additional flexibility. “Since Covid it’s become more flexible because we were able to work things so one of us usually works at home while the other is in the office” (C3210).
Mass Observation data allows people to lead. Its free form narrative, with prompts only to encourage, separate it from data acquired during questionnaires, where researchers set both questions and possible answers. This fit seamlessly with Sketch Engine and the Concept Cruncher, the data analysis tools, enabling me to interrogate data knowing any possible biases brought by my own lived experience were minimised.
For more on the benefits and opportunities of concept-led textual analysis, please follow the link to Concept Analytics Lab.