A month on from Freedom Day – has the UK forgotten life in lockdown?

One month on from the end of all legal Covid restrictions in England, the nation is beginning to get back to some semblance of normality and many of us are starting to forget what day-to-day life in lockdown was really like. Undoubtedly the UK has navigated a surreal piece of history that will be discussed and documented for centuries to come, but this historic period was, in many parts, totally forgettable.

Our personal history was once well-documented in photo albums, scrapbooks and diaries, yet with data by PastBook now revealing that 52% of the nation own no physical copies of their favourite photos, Brits may now risk losing generations of family history, stories and nostalgic treasures as well as the low-key memories created in lockdown.

Encouraging the nation to share and preserve the moments that will define a time like no other – from pandemic pictures to our summer holiday highlights – PastBook launched their campaign ‘Closing the Book on Lockdown’. Using the unique photobook service, Brits can create a free PastBook for the last 18 months here.

Key statistics from PastBook (https://www.pastbook.com) reveal:

Over HALF (52%) of people in the UK don’t own any physical copies of their favourite photos
29% of people in the UK say that their social media accounts are the best representation they have of their pandemic life story
One third (30%) of Brits say that the images uploaded on their social media accounts are the only record they have of their favourite memories
Almost HALF (49%) of 18–24-year-olds in the UK feel that their social media accounts have encouraged them to capture and share their memories through images, which they otherwise wouldn’t have taken
Nearly half (47%) of Brits say that looking back at old photos and memories has been the biggest help during lonely or tough times

The nationally representative research, conducted over 2080 respondents, paints a picture of how our social media accounts have become embedded in our everyday life. According to this first-of-its-kind study, more than half of the population have no physical copies of their favourite photos, yet almost half have captured and shared memories on their social media accounts which they otherwise wouldn’t have taken. Furthermore, the research also reveals that one-third of respondents say that their social media accounts are the best representation they have of their life story, with nearly half of Brits agreeing that the images uploaded on their social media accounts have allowed them to get through the toughest of times during the lockdown period.

Wouter Staatsen, CEO of PastBook, discusses the importance of documenting the surrealness of the last 18 months:

“Over the last 18 months, the world has experienced a period that will go down in history books. Traditionally, this time would have been documented through written letters, newspapers or printed photographs – yet in today’s digital age, we have all been able to document our pandemic experience through our social media accounts, sharing our highs and lows with long-distance loved ones.

Now, as all restrictions in the UK have been lifted and Brits are enjoying a summer like never before, PastBook is encouraging the nation to document their own slice of history through our campaign, Closing the Book on Lockdown. Taken from our most precious shared memories on our social media accounts, PastBook create well-curated, stylistic logs of these social accounts and turn them into image-based memoirs – preserved forever. As such, we all have a way to turn our own history into a keepsake that we will cherish forever.”