Confinement has caused an increase in the search for tools that allow us to feel more comfortable in the environment that surrounds them. In many cases, that space is an apartment of less than 60 square meters to be shared with three other tenants, but some have found a way to create their ideal home through games and interior decoration applications. In fact, downloads apps of construction, design and gardening have increased worldwide since confinement measures are being applied.
The star of the moment is called Design Home. It has 75 million downloads and at least one million users every day. Players can decorate from children’s rooms to the most luxurious chalets. In addition, the furniture of the app son real. They belong to the collections of famous brands. “Players have fun discovering the latest styles and furniture from around the world and manufacturers can connect with their customers,” explains Chris McGill, creator of Design Home. Also, the game is constantly updated. Every 24 hours they add furniture so that players are aware of the news. “The average age of users is 38 years old and the game has been downloaded from every country in the world. And yes, there has been a big increase over the last two weeks,” adds McGill.
There is a reason for the growth of these downloads in times of confinement. “There is nothing as dapper as a prisoner’s cell, a clerk’s cubicle, a sailor’s cabin, or a truck driver’s cabin. And, if you don’t have a house to fix, you make it up, which is what virtual reality is for in its various degrees of hyperreality. It is a benign and harmless obsessive neurosis”, explains Mariano Fernández Enguita, professor of sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).
From a psychological point of view, the house is a refuge that protects us from the enemy. It has the same meaning now, when we have video surveillance and security systems, as it did in prehistory when they were just caves. “We think that it is a place of protection from hunger, cold, war or anything hostile that is outside: in this case a virus,” says José Ramón Ubieto, psychoanalyst and professor at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The house is also a projection of the body, like a second skin, in which the concept of intimacy is included. “These factors reinforced by the confinement explain why this intimate place is as comfortable and comfortable as we can, since we cannot be in a hammock on the beach or in any place that transmits peace and tranquility to us,” says Ubieto.
This is also applicable to those who do not have their own home. “Fictions are not only movies or novels, they are also applications. That is to say, artifices that we build to be able to experience experiences that we cannot in person. It’s the same reason why reality shows or surprise reform shows exist. Dreaming of that ideal house gives us pleasure and screens are just the means. They are dream factories”, explains Ubieto.
These dreams also explain the increase in downloads of applications that teach, for example, how to take care of a garden that most people do not have. “We have all suffered a break in routines and, although at one point the tendency is to think that we are left empty, people tend to make a living with the resources available to them,” explains Natalia Cantó, sociologist and professor at the arts and humanities studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Living in a house with a porch and pool is not the same as living in an apartment. When games such as ‘orchards’ or ‘gardening’ are downloaded, they respond to a need or desire that is not covered. “It is healthy and normal to download apps that simulate being outdoors when you are locked in four walls. They respond to the need to distract yourself, do something meaningful with your time and add some comfort if it seems that you are doing something outside”, concludes Cantó.