Using the American Time Use Survey, researchers found that Americans were already spending less time out of the home years before COVID-19. Between 2003 and 2019, out-of-home time fell by nearly 30 minutes a day, and travel fell by eight minutes. The pandemic accelerated the shift, and by 2023 people were spending nearly 1.5 hours less per day outside than in 2003. Remote work, online shopping, streaming and gaming drove much of the change, and only about a quarter of the travel reduction comes from less commuting. Time spent alone has risen with it, and loneliness is linked to higher early mortality.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.