Loneliness shaping young adults’ sense of home during the Covid-19 pandemic in Finland

Abstract

This article examines how loneliness intertwines with young adults' (aged 20–35) sense of home during the Covid-19 pandemic, when lockdowns and restrictions altered the role of home in everyday life. Drawing from data gathered through an online questionnaire, I explore how loneliness has or has not shaped young adults' understandings of and attachments to their home during the pandemic. My focus is on young adults who live alone or in shared housing in Finland. I apply Sara Ahmed's sticky emotions and Margaret Wetherell's affective practices as I show in the analysis that young adults often (re)make positive meanings for home when they are lonely. Contrastingly, the pandemic has had a role in making living alone lonely for many, making loneliness to stick to home and shaping the home into a distressing, isolating place. I argue that also in non-pandemic times, it is important to note that the way loneliness shapes home is complex and ambiguous, and happens in relation to life beyond home, including diverse social encounters and relationships that cross the border of home.