By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Being homebound can be hard on the spirit, and a University of Illinois researcher is on this. Economist Bita Fayez Farkhad says her work begins with examining how we use Google:

“There were some increases in Internet searches. for example, for feeling anxious or feeling disheartened,” Farkhad said. “This increase is disappearing over time, and, after a couple of weeks, the rates of search for those negative feelings went down.”

And, she says, stay-at-home policies actually correlated with fewer searches for suicide and antidepressants. Thus, Farkhad says, we adjust to the “new normal” within a month. And, as a possible sign some good is coming out of the pandemic stay-at-home orders, searches for exercise and cooking went up.

Netflix, too.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].