WEBVTT - How Coronavirus Has Changed Our Online Activity 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:04.040 It's Monday a. I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily Dive 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.640 podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update. 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:11.479 The virus has changed the way we internet. While some 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.040 things maybe obvious, people are starting to have more video 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.360 chats with friends, family, and co workers, other aspects of 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.680 the way we spend our time online can be surprising. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.440 People are moving away from their phones and using desktop computers. 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.599 More people are consuming more news from local and established 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.720 newspapers and less on partisan sites. And video games have 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.640 seen an increase while sports have lost out. Nathaniel Popper, 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.440 reporter at the New York Times, joins us for how 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.400 we are spending our lives online during the pandemic. Thanks 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.400 for joining us, Nathaniel, Thank you for having me. I 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.240 wanted to talk a little bit about how our lives 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.800 have changed because of coronavirus, all the social distancing that 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.720 we're practicing. Obviously, Americans are spending a lot more time 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:56.320 at home and increasingly are living their lives online. And 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:58.319 these are things that we've been doing for a long time, 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.720 but now we have this kind of moment you look 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.920 and see how it's changing slightly. We're always looking for 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.080 different ways to entertain ourselves, whether it's our Netflix or 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.480 Facebook or YouTube's. But one thing that's changing is that 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.920 we're turning away slightly from our phones. When the trend 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.959 before that was everything was mobile. Everybody was working on 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.600 mobile platforms, how to optimize videos and things for mobile. 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.040 We're taking a turn back. We have our computers at 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.200 home and we're working on those things a little bit more. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.160 That was a really interesting finding here. We put together 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.920 a bunch of data that we pulled to look at 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.640 how our behavior changed really in the course of just 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.520 a few weeks, and you see these pretty dramatic changes 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:45.200 in online behavior that is obviously very unusual, but these 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.960 are unusual times. And one of the things that stuck 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.240 out to us was that these sites that were seeking 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:57.040 out for entertainment for social connections, so Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:02.160 all of those services have seeing the traffic on their 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:07.880 apps declining at the same time that their websites have 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:13.720 seen just skyrocketing traffic. So Facebook traffic to their website 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.280 has gone up twenty basically the matter of a few days, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.840 and their app, which used to be what everybody was checking, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.480 has sort of been limping along. And I think it's 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.280 almost as if we're sort of remembering the virtue of 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.239 looking at a big computer screen rather than squinting down 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.359 at our phone all day, right exactly, we have the 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.200 luxury of using our desktops and our laptops more the 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.280 other thing. Obviously, this is one that we know, video chats. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.200 It's definitely having a moment right now. People are connecting 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.320 all sorts of ways on different apps. I mean, there's 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.480 obviously FaceTime, there's Zoom is a huge one, but there's 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:50.880 a few other ones that people are gravitating towards right 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.840 now because they need something more than just the video chat. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.440 They want fun backgrounds, and they want other stuff to 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.959 help kind of spruce that part of it up. It's 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.360 really notable that it feels like just sort of connecting 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:08.359 by text is not enough in this time where we 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.320 can't see people because of social distancing. We're not allowed 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.639 to get together with our friends and family, and so 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.680 the only way we can see each other is through video. 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.760 And that has helped a bunch of services that really 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.720 were not big ones before this house party. I think 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.760 it had some history of being popular, it had been 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:30.720 training at some point, but it was really kind of 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.120 limping along and over the last few weeks again it's 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:39.120 seen a traffic shoot up. And it allows essentially, as 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.520 the name would suggest, people to gather together in a 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.720 video chat room, somewhat like Zoom does, but there's also 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:50.560 games involved. It's fun, it's about socializing, it's about being together. 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.640 It's not just about doing business. Just specifically, some friends 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.120 posting up how they were on the house party thing 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:58.560 and I had to go look into because I hadn't 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:00.280 heard about it before. But yeah, that's because the same 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.880 thing they we're doing, playing the games, trying to have 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.880 some fun other ways than just the traditional video chat. 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.440 This is more than FaceTime, and so I think yes, 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.120 so much of the changing patterns is in that direction 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.640 of finding ways to connect more deeply when we're feeling 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.920 cut off from each other. The other sort of interesting 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.360 trend in that direction is with our neighbors and locally, 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.599 because we're thinking so much more about the local businesses 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.240 and our local community. Is coronavirus here, as it made 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.040 it into the local hospital, What are the numbers around me? 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.920 And so on that front, you have social media network 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.720 next Door, which has been popular, but it's still a 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.960 relatively small player in the social media world. But again 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.760 it has just taken off over the last few weeks. Obviously, 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.479 a lot of people are working from home, students that 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.080 have had their schools closed, which is basically all of them, 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.279 they're taking classes from home, so on that front, Zoom 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.919 has definitely having a moment with a lot of students. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.960 Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams are company I heart media. We're 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.960 using Microsoft Teams to connect and do a virtual meetings 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.680 and all that. So these are also having a moment. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.599 But the thing that comes with that is privacy concerns. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.360 I know Zoom specifically had a lot of privacy concerns 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.280 with Zoom bombing and a couple of other glass as well. 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:25.000 It feels like Zoom more than any other company has 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.760 benefited from this. I think there's no company that's emerged 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:33.000 from this more strongly, seeing their stock overtake uber in 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.000 terms of the size of the company the market capitalization. 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.000 But along with that, as so often I think happens 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.120 in the tech world when something takes off, as you 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.000 realize that they're not actually ready for prime time yet, 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.800 and there just been this litany of security concerns that 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.799 have come up. People being able to log in snoop 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.719 on other people's traffic. Of course, this issue of zoom bombing, 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.440 where people basically intrude, often in offensive ways, into other 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.680 people's zoom conference is and I think it's this inevitable 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.800 tale of Silicon Valley where it's not quite ready for 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.240 the success that it has. And that's why Zoom was 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.120 so interesting to me on how it took off, especially 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.800 with schools and online classrooms, because of that, it was 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.040 still fairly new and as exactly as you said, when 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.200 it's new and hot and everybody wants to use it, 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.080 all the other little cracks starts showing after that. It 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.200 was very surprising to me that Zoom took off so 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.120 much because of that, especially for online classes when you 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.640 want something to be a little more stable for the students, 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.520 and obviously all the privacy concerns there. It sort of 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.960 is a reminder of just how quickly behavior has changed. Obviously, 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.320 video chat was something that existed before, but it was 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.599 not something that all that many people were relying on before. 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.760 It was not something people were thinking about so much before. Obviously, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.680 you know, I think in the business world, slack was 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.480 the big sort of trend, the big growth pattern because 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.479 you're chatting with people in between seeing them. Now you 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:57.640 can't see them, and so you need a way to 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.400 do that, and Zoom has obviously been the play to go. 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.360 But it's going to be interesting to see as time 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.280 goes on how much people move back towards things like 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.480 Microsoft teams maybe hangouts from other places that have a 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.640 bit more of a track record, especially with security. Now, 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.960 this next angle of how coronavirus has changed the way 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.160 we internet, I think it's a good one. So people 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.119 have gone to their local newspaper sites and their local 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.120 TV stations. They've turned to them more for news updates. 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.040 They obviously want to know what's going on in their 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.840 communities a lot, and partisan sites those have maybe not 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.240 had huge decreases, but at least stagnated at least with traffic. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.160 And people are turning to a lot more large media 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.320 organizations sites that they trust, especially things like New York 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.239 Times and the Washington Post. You know, when the President 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.400 says a lot of things like oh, fake news and whatnot, 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.600 and you know it has its place when things start 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.000 getting heavily politicized. But it's good to see that people 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.360 are turning to these local sites more now there's definitely 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.400 a sense of the last few years have been all 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:04.760 about skepticism towards the media. Obviously, partisan news sites have 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.880 fed that skepticism of corporate media. But you come to 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:12.840 a time where you just want the facts, and I 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.240 think people are turning back to those traditional sources and saying, 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.120 if I just want the facts, this is still the 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.200 place I'm going to go. I don't necessarily want the opinions. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.400 I want to know what the numbers are in my community, 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.320 what restaurants are shut down. I want to know how 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.160 much things are spreading. And so you're seeing more mainstream 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.839 sites which have in many ways struggled in recent years. 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.000 Those have been the places where people have been going. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.760 And unfortunately this is not necessarily meant a great sort 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.560 of business boom for these companies because a lot of 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.880 these companies make most of their money from advertisers. And 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.800 so even if you have a lot of viewers, if 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.160 advertisers are sort of dropping out, which is what's happening 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.360 now with the economy, the sites are continuing to struggle. 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:05.200 Local newspapers are continuing to struggle economically even as their readership, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.240 you know, is skyrocketing. Two sites that some big increases. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.800 C NBC, the business news website, has seen a huge increase, 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.320 and the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.120 Obviously people are pointing to them a lot of hard 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.440 numbers and guidance on social distancing and whatnot, so they've 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.000 seen big numbers. And the last section we want to 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.560 talk about video games. Obviously, sports have dropped off a 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:32.000 huge bit. Uh. ESPN website has gone down. Things like 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.280 Twitch and TikTok. People watching other people play video games 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:39.120 and interact on that scene has increased. Yeah, I mean 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:44.720 Twitch is the largest service to watch other people play 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.640 video games, and they were already that before this. But 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.280 when you look at the chart in their daily numbers, 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.680 you just see right as social distancing sets in, you 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.600 just see their numbers take off explode. And it's one 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.240 of the only forms of entertainment, at least live entertainment 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.560 that's left to us out there. And you know, I 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.520 think TikTok is an interesting one. I mean it's it's 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.760 an app that's only on the phone. You might think 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.400 that this might hurt them somewhat, but I think silly 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.880 entertainment sort of a distraction from all of this waitiness 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.120 is something that people still want, and so I was 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.280 struck by the fact that TikTok was one of the 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.840 apps where things actually haven't changed that much for them. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.080 They just keep getting more and more popular. That that 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.520 idea of watching somebody get hit in the back of 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.240 the head with a sponge by their wife is like, 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.920 you know, it's it's something we we need just as 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.240 much now as we did two months ago. Nathaniel Popper, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.200 reporter at the New York Times, thank you very much 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:49.400 for joining us. Thanks again for having me. I'm Oscar 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.360 Ramirez and this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.600 forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.520 me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.160 So follow us in iHeart Radio or where every get 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:00.800 your podcast.