Are we a nation of introverts?

A Horizon Research poll of 1267 adults showed the majority of them, well over half, 57 percent of them, want to stay isolated even when Level 4 is lifted.

12 percent claimed they’d definitely stay in isolation and not rush back out to get amongst people, 45 percent said they’d most likely stay in isolation. So there’s your 57 percent of homebodies.

I wonder how much of this is about people still feeling afraid of the virus, or of catching it, despite our extremely low and reducing numbers, versus those who’ve quite enjoyed the quiet life because they are in fact introverts, they don’t need to be among other people to thrive, they’re happy with their own company.

I can completely understand that settling into this new normal – of lockdown life – can become a familiar blanket and we are reluctant to throw it off and go immediately back to how we once operated. In fact I saw file footage on the news the other night of a bustling shopping mall teeming with people and it felt very unenticing, quite confronting to see all those people shoulder to shoulder. That might take some getting used to again.

But for all the people who say they want to stay home, there does seem to be a heck of a lot of people desperate to get out and about. I’ve noticed a big increase in traffic on the roads, I’m not sure where everyone’s going but the roads feel much more busy than 3 or 4 weeks ago.

As of last night, there’ve been 4100 and 28 breaches of the lockdown, 433 prosecutions, 3500 and 80 official warnings, 150 youth referrals. So that’s a fair few people deciding lockdown life is not for them.

I’m curious as to how Level 3 unfolds, whether we take our foot off the gas and relax a bit, how intense the online shopping and the drive throughs are, how desperate we are for takeout coffees and KFC, or whether we are in fact slow to part with our money once we officially can. The forced savings of this time, combined with many households reduced budgets due to financial constraints, may make for less frivolous spending.

But ‘stay home save lives’, the message preached by governments around the globe, has been largely adhered to here in New Zealand, I will watch with interest how much we keep adhering to that message as we head into Level 3.

At that point I think we’ll really start to see how many of us are happy to keep up introvert life.