We noted in a bulletin last week that anxiety levels were improving, and we’ve seen positive signs again. While the amount of people saying they’re not anxious (26%) has remained steady, we’ve seen another drop in those saying they’re very anxious (down to 15%).

There’s now an 11 point gap between the two metrics, the largest we’ve seen so far. Obviously we’re not out of the woods yet, but with the countries we’ve surveyed seeing the beginnings of getting the outbreak under control, this may explain falling anxiety levels.

The picture for people feeling depressed is a little different. We see a similar trend for the amount of ‘Not at all’ respondents as we do for anxiety – it’s been rising steadily, but now it’s flattened out.

Where the story differs is in the ‘Very’ category. There has been no significant change, simply moving up and down within a 3 point range all the way from March through to now. There are minor hints this number is starting to fall, but it won’t be time to celebrate until there are bigger movements.

The findings above make sense in context. While countries might be seeing infection rates fall, the effects of Covid-19 are still very present in the form of disappearing jobs, lost loved ones, and separation from friends.

Meanwhile, continuing and worsening economic conditions loom on the horizon. As they come into focus, we may sadly see reports of anxiety and depression begin to rise again.

Letters from lockdown

In the before-times, we rarely took the time to sit down and write letters. But the bulletin team wondered if the pandemic may have changed people’s feelings towards sending physical messages to their loved ones.

Using our Consumer Research platform we looked at the letter-writing conversation online to see if there had been any changes.

There’s evidently been a big jump. March and April saw letter-writing mentions leap above average for the last few years. April alone saw an increase of 33%.

When we looked into the verbatim mentions, we found a lot of people celebrating the process of letter writing, or being elated to have received a handwritten letter.

Of course, this isn’t just about the joy of putting real pen to real paper – it’s about connecting with people. Social distancing and lockdowns have cut millions off from their friends, families, colleagues, and classmates. It’s only natural people would seek out new ways to connect.

There has also been an increased interest in penpals. Google searches on the topic jumped at the end of March, and we’ve found a surge in posts to the /r/penpals subreddit.

It’s clear people are clamoring for new connections as their old ones are cut off or mediated by cameras and screens.

Interest in letter writing isn’t all about communicating with others, either. 16k consumers have been talking about writing to their future selves and reading their old letters, either for a pick me up, or to reassure themselves for the future.

Following on from our section on anxiety and depression, it turns out that, for many, letter writing has a part to play in improving mental health.

We found 10k people saying writing letters helped manage their stress, while another 9k said letters helped them with anxiety. 1k said letter writing even formed part of their self care routine.

Letter writing has clearly become a positive force for many people. So if you find yourself with time to kill at the weekend, why not get involved?

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Thanks for reading

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Stay safe,

Brandwatch Response Team