Documentation and installers are available from https://www.sing-group.org/compi. A specific repository for Compi pipelines is available from Compi Hub  user interface generation, by automatically generating a command-line interface based on the pipeline specific parameter definitions; (ii) application packaging, with compi-dk, which is a version-control-friendly tool to package the pipeline application and its dependencies into a Docker image; and (iii) application distribution provided through a public repository of Compi pipelines, named Compi Hub, which allows users to discover, browse and reuse them easily. By addressing these three aspects, Compi goes beyond traditional workflow engines, having been specially designed for researchers who want to take advantage of common workflow engine features  while keeping the simplicity and readability of shell scripts without the need to learn a new programming language. Here we discuss the design of various pipelines developed with Compi to describe its main functionalities, as well as to highlight the similarities and differences with similar tools that are available. An open-source distribution under the Apache 2.0 License is available from GitHub (available at  Bioinformatics units routinely deal with massive data analyses, which require combining multiple sequential or parallel steps using specific software tools . Many ofhttps://www.commonwl.org/) definition represents another alternative, since it defines a specification and offers a reference implementation, but does not provide a complete framework  but lacking advanced programming skills , are usually overwhelmed due to the high complexity of these systems, and could be hampered to use or create their own workflows. In this sense, tools such as Bpipe  help to Compi is specially designed for researchers who want to take advantage of common workflow engine features  while maintaining the simplicity and readability of shell scripts, without the need to learn a new programming language. Nevertheless, Compi also incorporates several features that meet the needs of the most advanced users, such as support for multiple programming languages or advanced management and control of workflow execution. In this sense, Compi is more than a workflow engine, it was created as an application framework for developing pipeline-based end-user applications by providing: (i) automatic user interface generation—generates a classical command-line interface (CLI) for the entire pipeline based on its parameter specifications; (ii) application packaging—provides a version-control-friendly mechanism to package the pipeline application and its dependencies into a Docker image; and (iii) application distribution, supported by Compi Hub —a publicCompi has been adopted by our research group to create pipelines for multiple research projects where other systems were not appropriate enough . Likewise, pipelines developed with Compi in collaboration with other research groups have already been published. These are: Metatax, a pipeline to analyze biological samples based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing , FastScrhttps://github.com/sing-group/compi). Documentation and installers are available from https://www.sing-group.org/compi.This section depicts the most relevant technical details regarding the implementation of Compi. An open-source distribution under the Apache 2.0 License is available from GitHub (Compi pipelines are defined in a single XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file that includes: (i) tasks and dependencies between them, (ii) pipeline input parameters that are forwarded to tasks, and (iii) metadata, including parameters and tasks descriptions, which are useful for automatic generation of the user interface, as well as for pipeline documentation.https://www.arp242.net/yaml-config.html). Fifth comes readability. YAML is the clearer winner in this regard, as readability is the key feature of this format. Although XML is less readable than YAML, the comparison with JSON and DSLs is a more subjective matter. Based on these five requirements, the choice was between XML and YAML: while XML is more secure and portable, YAML is more readable. Finally, we selected XML, prioritizing its security, portability and popularity. Also, while writing XML files could be verbose, YAML is syntactically aware of whitespace, which is a welcome feature in the Python community, but still debated outside of it.We have chosen XML instead of JSON, YAML, or a custom DSL (Domain Specific Language) to reconcile the various requirements simultaneously. First, we wanted a high degree of interoperability. XML, JSON, and YAML can be easily generated and parsed in almost any programming language, although YAML can pose portability issues in some cases as YAML parsers in different languages can produce different results. In contrast, a DSL  is less The workflow execution engine of Compi is implemented purely in Java and is responsible for multi-thread task scheduling, monitoring, and standard error and output logging of tasks. First, it computes the DAG (Direct Acyclic Graph) of the task dependencies, since a task may depend on a set of tasks that must be run before the given task. Right after starting, or whenever a task finishes its execution, the engine reacts and all the tasks that can be run, i.e., the tasks whose dependencies are now complete, are sent to a worker thread pool that has a parameterizable size. When there are no more tasks to run, the pipeline execution ends.Every time a task is about to run and there is a free thread in the pool, a new subprocess is spawned by invoking the system Bash interpreter to execute the task script. Pipeline parameters are passed to the task script through environment variables, which is a robust, standard mechanism with two main benefits. On the one hand, environment variables are easily accessed via “$variable_name” or more complex expressions, so pipeline parameters are available directly within the task script. On the other hand, this allows Compi to pass parameters to scripts written in languages other than Bash, because virtually all programming languages give access to environment variables.The way to execute languages differently from Bash is through task interpreters. Any task can have a task interpreter defined in the pipeline specification, which is an intermediate, user-defined bash script intended to take the task script as input and call an interpreter from a different programming language.Moreover, it is possible to define task runners, which are the same concept as interpreters, but with a different purpose. They are not defined within the pipeline specification, but rather at execution time, and are intended to tailor task execution to specific computing resources, without modifying the pipeline itself. In this way, the workflow definition is decoupled from the workflow execution, making it possible to change the way tasks are executed without modifying the workflow XML file. For instance, if the tasks must be run in a cluster environment such as SGE or Slurm, computations must be initiated via a submission command (qsub in SGE or srun in Slurm). Task runners intercept task execution by changing the default Bash interpreter with queue submissions.core module, which contains the workflow execution engine, with its main data structures. On top of it, there are two additional modules. On the one hand, the cli (command-line interface) module contains the command-line user interface for running pipelines, which generates a specific pipeline application tailored for pipeline tasks and parameters. On the other hand, the dk (Development Kit) module allows to create a portable application in the form of a Docker image and publishing the pipelines at Compi Hub.Compi comprises three main modules. The most important is the compi-dk tool to allow pipeline developers to publish their pipelines from the command line. The Compi Hub back-end runs in a Node.js server and uses a MongoDB database to store the data.As discussed above, Compi Hub is a public repository where Compi pipelines can be published. The Compi Hub front-end was implemented using the Angular v7 web application framework, while the back-end was implemented using TypeScript and offers a RESTful API that supports all the functionality of the front-end. This REST API is also used by the compi, the workflow engine with a command-line user interface to control the pipeline execution, (ii) compi-dk, a command-line tool to assist in the development and packaging of Compi-based applications, and (iii) Compi Hub, a public repository of Compi pipelines that allows users to easily discover, navigate and reuse them (Compi can be seen as an ecosystem comprising: (i) use them . Figure Compi helps pipeline developers by automatically determining the parameters required by a pipeline. This implies, on the one hand, that comprehensive help is generated for the user on how to use the application and, on the other hand, that the application parameters are automatically parsed when the pipeline is executed. This is complemented by several built-in features added to the CLI application, such as an advanced task execution control, allowing to run only specific tasks in a pipeline, or log management support per task. Therefore, building a CLI application from a Compi pipeline is a straightforward process that allows Compi users to focus on pipeline development. The “Pipeline design” section explains how Compi users can design their pipelines.compi . Community users can then browse the Compi Hub for pipelines and can explore the helpful documentation generated by the authors of each pipeline, as well as other information automatically generated by the platform, such as an interactive DAG representation of the pipeline. This topic is covered in the “Pipeline distribution via Compi Hub” section.compi-dk projects are particularly designed to be compatible with version control systems, as the required configuration and pipeline files are text files. Dependency management via a Dockerfile is key to achieve this, complemented by Compi-specific dependency management performed by compi-dk . Therefore, a compi-dk project only requires that compi, compi-dk and Docker are installed in order to be built or run. With this feature, Compi gives pipeline developers the ability to use version control systems to keep their pipeline safe and to version their code.Finally, it is important to note that As explained previously, Compi pipelines are defined in an XML document that includes user parameters, tasks, and metadata. Tasks are defined as “task” elements within the “tasks” section. The main components of a task are: source code, parameters and dependencies. The source code is placed inside a “task” element, and the parameters used by a task are defined within the “params” attribute, and those tasks that the current task depends on are defined in the “after” attribute. For instance, in A special type of tasks are parallel iterative tasks (or loop tasks), defined via “foreach” elements, which spawn multiple parallel processes with the same code on a collection of items. This collection of items is provided by a user-specified source of items, which could be a comma-separated list of values, a range of numbers, the files in a specific directory, a parameter whose value is a list of values separated by commas, or even a custom command whose output lines are taken as items. Each item is available to the task code as an environment variable.after =”*preprocess”) to tell Compi that iterations over the “analyze” loop could start when the corresponding iterations over the “preprocess” loop have finished.When all spawned tasks have finished, the foreach task ends as well and subsequent dependent tasks can be run. Nevertheless, there are several scenarios in which a pipeline developer can define multiple consecutive foreach tasks intended to iterate over the same collection of independent items. In these scenarios, when one iteration of a loop has finished, the corresponding iteration of the next loop could start without waiting for the entire previous loop to finish. Compi supports this type of interaction between foreach tasks by simply adding the ‘*’ prefix to the task name when declaring the dependency on the “after” attribute. For example, in a scenario where a pipeline must process a set of samples  by performing two consecutive operations: preprocess and analyze, the dependency of the “preprocess” task on the “analyze” task can be prefixed with ‘*’ . Without the ‘*’ prefix, the “analyze” task will only start when the whole “preprocess” task has finished.“compi run -p pipeline.xml –help”, which describes the Compi execution parameters and specification of each pipeline task. https://www.sing-group.org/compihub/explore/5d09fb2a1713f3002fde86e2).One of the main features of Compi is the creation of a classic CLI for the entire pipeline based on its parameter specifications to aid users run the pipeline. This CLI is displayed when a user executes compi run” command receives the pipeline definition file explicitly, while the “–params” option indicates that the input parameters must be read from the “compi.params” file. On the other hand, in compi assumes that the pipeline definition must be read from a file named “pipeline.xml“ located in the current working directory. Also, pipeline parameters are passed on the command line after all the “compi run” parameters and separated by the ‘–’ delimiter.As “–logs” option to specify a directory to save the standard (stdout) and error (stderr) outputs of each task along with the specific parameter values used in each execution. They are saved in three different files named with the name of the corresponding task as prefix . To avoid unnecessary file creation, Compi does not save task outputs unless the “–logs” option is used. However, it is possible to specify which tasks should be logged using the “–log-only-task” or “–no-log-task” parameters. In addition to the task specific logs, Compi displays its own log messages during pipeline execution. These messages can be disabled by including “–quiet“ as shown in –show-std-outs” option forces Compi to forward each task log to the corresponding Compi output, which is very useful for debugging purposes during pipeline development.Regarding logging options, both include the “–num-tasks” parameter used in “–abort-if-warnings” option, also used in the example in The third group of options allows to control the execution of the pipeline. For instance, the “resume” command, Compi also allows launching sub-pipelines using modifiers such as “–from”, “–after“, “–until“ or “–before“. In the example shown in “–from“ and “–until“ modifiers is used, resulting in the execution of all tasks in the path between “task-1” and “task-10”, including “task-1” and “task-10”. If the “–after“ and “–before“ are used instead, then “task-1” and “task-10” are not executed. A fifth modifier is “–single-task“, which allows only the specified task to execute and is not compatible with the other four modifiers. The Compi documentation (https://www.sing-group.org/compi/docs/running_pipelines.html#examples) includes several examples to illustrate how each of these options work.One of the most notable features of the Compi workflow execution engine is that it allows a fine-grained control over the execution of the pipeline tasks. While many workflow engines only allow launching the entire pipeline or partially relaunching a pipeline from a point of failure, which can also be done in Compi using the “clustalo -i /path/to/input.fasta -o /path/to/output.fasta”), this tool must be available either from the path environment variable or by including the absolute path to the binary executable. Since dependency management is always cumbersome, a special effort has been made to offer developers and users various alternatives to deal with this problem, which are explained below.Compi runs each task as a local command by default . This me“–runners-config pipeline-runners.xml”. Individual runners are defined through a “runner“ element within a runners file, where the “task“ attribute is used to specify the list of tasks that the runner must execute. In this way, when a task identifier is assigned to a runner, Compi will ask the runner to run the corresponding task code . The usage of pipeline runners to handle dependencies allows Docker images to take responsibility for them  with the list of parameters that must be passed as environment variables to the Docker container. •Second, run the Docker image with the list of environment variables and mount the directory where the command has the input and output files (“workingDir” in this example).https://sing-group.org/compihub/explore/5e2eaacce1138700316488c1), although in this case “docker run” commands are included in each task rather than provided in a runners file for the sake of simplicity. Following this image-per-task execution pattern, it is possible for a pipeline to use different versions of the same software or two tools that require different versions of some dependencies.Such a Docker runner would allow to follow an image-per-task execution pattern, where each task is executed using a different container image . An examsrun parameters may need to be adjusted for each specific cluster and the “–export” parameter must be used to export all environment variables to the process to be executed, as the task parameters are declared as environment variables.In addition, custom runners can also be used to submit pipeline tasks to a job scheduler such as SGE, Torque or SLURM in supercomputers or computer clusters . For insIn the same way, when using Compi runners, it is also possible to combine containerized execution of Compi tasks with Docker in a clustered environment, using a container orchestration system such as Kubernetes .Another way to achieve dependency management is by building a monolithic Docker image with Compi, the pipeline itself and all its dependencies . This tohttps://www.sing-group.org/compihub/explore/5d807e5590f1ec002fc6dd83) illustrates this. For instance, Finally, dependency management can be also delegated to external systems. For example, Compi allows the use of Conda/Bioconda packages seamlessly. Each task can use them simply by activating and deactivating the corresponding Conda environments before executing the specific commands. The Metatax pipeline . Also, it can be tested by building a Docker image (using compi-dk) and running the containerized pipeline. As for the latter case, when the compi-dk build command is executed on the project directory, a Docker image for the pipeline is created. This image contains the compi executable file and a specific pipeline.xml file, along with the pipeline dependencies as defined in the Dockerfile. Dockerfile of the MINC Computer Vision pipeline for image classification based on Deep Learning (https://www.sing-group.org/compihub/explore/5d08a9e41713f3002fde86d5). The Dockerfile skeleton was automatically generated by compi-dk, being only necessary to add the “RUN” commands for the installation of “gluoncv” and “gnuplot” dependencies. In this regard, it is important to note that special attention was placed on the ability to derive a pipeline application image from any preexisting Docker image of interest . For instance, the RNA-Seq Compi pipeline discussed above was created using the DEWE , in which, as explained above, a “docker run” command is included within each task instead of managing the execution of Docker using an external runner file. Regardless, most of the tasks within this pipeline run under external Docker images, thus following the image-per-task execution pattern. As the GenomeFastScreen pipeline itself is also distributed as a Docker image, it must be able to run Docker images as well (please refer to the pipeline documentation for details on how to do this).When working with a Compi enables the creation of portable end-user CLI applications for pipelines that can be distributed as Docker images. As noted in the previous section, this is another way to deal with dependency management, as such Docker images contain all the dependencies required by the pipeline. Pipelines distributed this way follow an image-per-pipeline execution pattern in which all tasks are executed using the same image container  Fig. 5CFig. 5C, https://www.sing-group.org/compihub) or using the “compi-dk hub-push” command. Compi Hub can store several versions of a pipeline, each of them associated to a pipeline.xml file where the specific pipeline version is defined. In addition, since Compi Hub does not store either the full source code  or the Docker images themselves, pipeline publishers are encouraged to: (i) publish the source code  in public repositories such as GitHub or GitLab to allow users to re-build the project locally at any time; and (ii) push the corresponding Docker image to the Docker Hub registry so that users can pull the image and follow the instructions to run the pipeline application.Once the pipeline development is completed, it can be released through Compi Hub to increase the visibility and benefit from the Compi Hub features. Pipelines can be registered using the Compi Hub web interface . The DAG is followed by two tables, one containing the pipeline tasks and their associated descriptions, and a second one containing global parameters of the pipeline. Finally, this section encloses one table for each task with descriptions and specific parameters. It is important to note that all this information is automatically generated from the pipeline XML.Overview: this section is headed by the pipeline DAG, generated in the backend using the “ •compi-dk project. This file should be used to provide a comprehensive description of the pipeline, as well as instructions on how to use it.Readme: this section shows the content of the README.md file when it is present in the  •compi-dk project. We recommend that pipeline developers include this file with a human-readable description of the pipeline dependencies and the specific versions used to develop the pipeline.Dependencies: this section shows the content of the DEPENDENCIES.md file when it is present in the  •compi-dk project. We encourage pipeline developers to include this file in their compi-dk projects so that the terms of use of the pipeline are clear.License: this section shows the content of the LICENSE file when it is present in the  •Dataset: this section contains a list of datasets that can be used to test the different versions of the pipeline. It is shown when a pipeline publisher associates a test dataset with the displayed pipeline. In addition to the instructions given in the Readme section, we also recommend that pipeline publishers provide test datasets to help users test the pipelines themselves. •compi-dk project. Runner configurations must be stored as XML files within the “runners-example” directory of the project.Runners: this section displays a list of example runner configurations when they are present in the  •compi-dk project. Parameter configurations must be stored as plain-text key-value files in the “params-example” directory of the project.Params: this section shows a list of example parameter configurations when they are present in the As can be seen, Compi Hub was not designed to be a merely pipeline repository. We seek that developers accompany each pipeline with all the necessary information to ensure its portability and reproducibility by other researchers.Workflow management systems play a key role in the development of data science processing pipelines in multiple fields, such as bioinformatics or machine learning, among others. There are multiple solutions and approaches to develop flexible, portable, usable, maintainable and reproducible analysis pipelines in an easy way. With Compi, we progressed from a state-of-the-art capable workflow management system to an entire application framework, focusing on the transition from pipeline development to end users and the community. In this sense, we have put special emphasis on providing pipelines with an advanced and automatically generated CLI, which is aware of the pipeline structure, parameters and tasks descriptions, to facilitate its adoption by final users. Moreover, Compi aids pipeline developers in creating all-in-one distributable Docker images, as well as share the pipeline in an online automatically documented hub where it will be available to the community. This combination with Docker has the added benefit that Compi projects can be built into runnable CLI applications using only text files , allowing pipeline developers to use control version systems to keep track of their development. Compi pipelines can be executed in multiple computing layouts without any modification, from running natively on a single machine to a high-performance, fully containerized cluster environment, tailored to the needs of the end user. At design level, we have prioritized the use of well-known standards, such as XML, low intrusiveness and language agnosticism, targeting a broader user community. In this sense, we avoid defining pipelines via DSLs based on a specific programming language, forcing a scripting language to define each task code, or be coupled to specific dependency management systems, such as Python (Conda), R (Cran) or Java (Maven).if “ attribute of tasks, which executes a command just before the task is about to run, allowing the task to be skipped dinamically, and (ii) foreach loops, which can take their iteration values from the output of a command, which is executed just before the foreach loop is about to run, allowing, for instance, to do more parallel iterations depending on the number of files generated by a previous task.Unlike Snakemake, the Nextflow and SciPipe tools allow dynamic scheduling, that is, the ability to change the pipeline structure dynamically to schedule a different number of tasks based on the results of a previous step or any other parameter. Compi allows dynamic scheduling via (i) the “Compi, Snakemake, and Nextflow are language independent, allowing external scripts written in any programming language to be invoked.Preprend field when defining processes, similarly to how Compi runners work.Similar to Compi runners, Nextflow defines executors, which are the components that determine where a pipeline process runs and its execution is supervised. It provides multiple built-in executors to manage execution on SGE, SLURM, Kubernetes, and many others. In SciPipe, this can be achieved by using the docker run”) in the task code or in a runner that tackles the execution of such tasks. Additionally, pipeline developers can create a Docker image for the entire pipeline so that all tasks are executed in the same container. In both cases, the developer must mount the paths to the input and output files of each task when using Docker. In this sense, Nextflow provides built-in support to run individual tasks or complete pipelines using Docker, Singularity or Podman images. In the case of Docker, Nextflow is able to mount the input and output paths automatically, since it is aware of the files needed by tasks. Similarly, Snakemake has built-in support to execute complete pipelines on Docker images and individual rules in isolated Conda environments. The SciPipe documentation does not provide information on how to containerize pipelines.Regarding containerization, as explained above, when pipeline tasks need to run in isolated containers, Compi users must include the corresponding command . As previously stated, the “compi run” command provides the “–logs” option to specify a directory to save the stdout and stderr outputs and the specific parameter values of each task execution in separated files prefixed with the corresponding task name.Logging is another important feature of workflow management systems, allowing pipeline users to see how execution went and determine causes of errors if necessary. SciPipe has been designed with special care on logging and collecting metadata about each executed task. Following a data-centric audit logging approach, SciPipe generates a JSON file for each output file that contains the full trace of the tasks that were executed to generate it. Nextflow provides a log command that returns useful information about a specific pipeline execution, and incorporates a “compi-dk tool allows to push pipelines to the hub via command line. Snakemake does not provide a similar public repository, but a dedicated GitHub project exists (https://github.com/snakemake-workflows/docs).Nextflow has nf-core, an environment with a dual purpose: to provide an online repository of Nextflow pipelines and to provide a command-line tool to interact with the repository and manage the execution of the hosted pipelines. Similarly, the Compi Hub repository allows users to discover and explore pipelines, and the After these considerations, and given the choices available, we believe that Compi may be a reasonable choice for researchers with CLI skills looking to create medium complexity pipelines without requiring them to learn new programming languages . In this way, researchers would benefit from the common features of the workflow management engine that Compi offers without the need for much training. In addition, thanks to the auto-generated CLI, Compi would be the most suitable solution for those pipelines meant to be used by researchers as end-user applications. As the existing pipeline examples presented in the previous section demonstrate, pipeline-based applications developed in this way can easily be distributed as Docker images. Finally, to illustrate the way of creating Compi pipelines and the main differences with other workflow management systems, we have implemented a Nextflow example pipeline in Compi . This siCompi is an application framework for developing pipeline-based end-user applications in bioinformatics and data science. Two Compi design principles are low intrusiveness and language agnosis, with the goal of covering a wide variety of scenarios and providing the most flexibility to pipeline developers. Noteworthy, Compi pipelines can be executed in multiple computing layouts without the need to modify the pipeline definition, from running natively on a single machine to a fully-containerized, high-performance cluster environment, tuned for the needs of the end user.compi-dk) and Compi Hub. Thanks to the Compi Development Kit, pipelines can be packaged as self-contained Docker images that also include pipeline dependencies, and can be shared publicly with minimal effort using Compi Hub.To complement the Compi workflow execution engine, we have also created Compi Development Kit  improving the metadata section of the pipelines to allow the inclusion of more information ; (ii) including the possibility of creating stackable runners that gives more flexibility and power to customize task execution; and (iii) enhancing the logging reports generated by Compi.10.7717/peerj-cs.593/supp-1Supplemental Information 1Click here for additional data file.10.7717/peerj-cs.593/supp-2Supplemental Information 2Click here for additional data file.


Significant restrictions on movement outside the home due to the global COVID-19pandemic have intensified the importance of everyday digital technologies forcommunicating remotely with intimate others. In this article, we draw onfindings from a home-based video ethnography project in Sydney to identify theways that digital devices and software served to support and enhance intimacyand sociality in this period of crisis and isolation. Digital communicationtechnologies had an increased presence in people’s domestic lives duringlockdown. For many people, video calling software had become especiallyimportant, allowing them to achieve greater closeness and connection with theirfriends and family in enacting both everyday routines and special events. Thesefindings surface the digital and non-digital materialities of sociality andintimacy, and the capacities opened by people’s improvisation with theaffordances of home-based communication technologies at a time of extendedphysical isolation. The unfolding crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reshaped the day-to-daylives of many people around the world, including in Australia. Despite, at the timeof writing, low national infection and death rates in Australia compared to manyother high-income countries, measures introduced by government authorities tocontain the spread of COVID-19 have had a major impact on Australians’ routines andrelationships. The World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemicon 11 March 2020. Australian federal and state governments began to announceinternational and national travel bans from this point onwards, and local movementrestrictions soon followed. Social distancing rules and shutdowns of non-essentialservices began in Australia from 21 March, with this initial lockdown beginning togradually ease from early June 2020 . Dueto Given the currency and the dynamic nature of the crisis, the impact on Australians’routines and relationships during this initial lockdown period has yet to bedocumented in detail. In this article, we offer an early contribution, reporting onsome preliminary findings from a qualitative research project funded by theAustralian Research Council which aims to identify how people live with and throughtheir digital devices and the personal data these generate. ‘Living with PersonalData’, designed by Deborah Lupton and Mike Michael, was funded and commenced wellbefore the COVID-19 crisis erupted, and therefore life during the pandemic was notthe initial focus of this project. However, the reduced opportunities for in-personsocial contact have resulted in major changes to how our participants use and valueeveryday digital technologies in the home setting. Our project’s methods were alsoaffected by the COVID-19 restrictions, and we were forced to adjust from in-personto ‘virtual’ ethnographic methods once these came into effect.say about their digital technology use and what theydo, and how these material-discursive elements have cometogether and are made to matter  the importance of visual elements in communicative technologies during thistime, (2) the increased frequency of social contact in which our participantsengaged and (3) the limitations of digital communication highlighted by ourparticipants in their accounts. We conclude by discussing the significance of thesepractices in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, reflecting on the value of taking asociomaterial approach to understanding digitised materialities of intimacy andsociality and outlining directions for future research.A growing body of research adopts a sociomaterial perspective to examine how peoplecome together with material objects to configure dynamic human-nonhuman assemblagesthat enact intimacy and sociality. The literature on the ‘materialities of care’works toThe literature on digitally mediated intimacies and affects points to the significantopportunity for digital media to be used for expressions of affection, friendship,familial ties, emotional connection and concern for others. Sociomaterial researchhas found that paying close attention to the routine enactments of digitaltechnologies can surface the complexities of these practices. For example, Before the COVID physical distancing restrictions, many Australian households werealready using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers to coordinatewith family members in the home as well as maintain connections with friends andfamily living further away . For exaResearchers have begun to reflect on changes to the home environment and experiencesof ‘being at home’ as part of initial COVID lockdown and quarantine restrictions inAustralia. These commentaries have pointed to the increased burden placed on womento engage in care of family members during the initial stages of the pandemic and how An eight-stage longitudinal study of just over 1000 people conducted by theAustralian Bureau of Statistics from the end of March (the ‘Household Impacts ofCOVID-19 Survey’) provides some initial quantitative insights into social andemotional changes wrought by COVID-related restrictions, including digitaltechnology use for social connection. The first wave of the survey found that almostall respondents reported keeping their distance from other people and most werecancelling their plans to gather with friends and family . Bythe To this developing picture of Australians’ experiences of the COVID crisis, ourproject’s findings contribute rich ethnographic material on people’s experienceswith technology at home in lockdown, offering insights into how people enactedfamilial and other social relationships during the early months of the COVID-19crisis.In the broader project on which this article draws, we investigate how Sydneysidersfrom a diverse range of backgrounds use digital technologies in and outside the homesetting, and their understandings and practices related to the personal digital datagenerated from this use. There are two phases in this project: (1) fieldworkinvolving visits to people’s homes in different parts of Sydney (currently inprogress), and (2) group workshops (yet to be conducted). In designing the homevisit fieldwork, we were inspired by previous studies using video ethnographies todocument Australians’ everyday experiences of using digital technologies in homesettings. These studies have explored Australians’ household practices such as theiruse of broadband technologies , smart hFor our home visits, we asked participants to move around their homes, showing us thedigital devices they and their family or housemates used and explaining how theyused the technologies. To facilitate further discussion about devices and data,participants were asked to draw maps, using pen and paper, of their digital devicesin and outside the home in relation to each other, showing what personal data weregenerated by these devices and where these data travel. The final question askedparticipants to engage in a speculative exercise, imagining a new digital technologyto best suit their needs.At the time the COVID-related restrictions were announced, we had commenced the firstphase of the project, but were forced to shift our ethnographic home visits to acompletely digital method and implement the amended fieldwork protocol. Initialethics approval was provided by the UNSW Sydney Human Ethics Research Committee, anda variation request to change the home visits to a virtual format in response tophysical distancing restrictions was subsequently approved. This phase now involveseither in-person (pre-COVID restrictions) or virtual (during COVID restrictions)home visits, lasting between 1 and 1.5 hours on average. All home visits discussedin this article were conducted in this modified, virtual way. Participants engagedin a video call with a member of the research team, video-recorded using the Zoomapp, and used a mobile personal device (smartphone or tablet) to lead tours of theirhome and engage in the map-making activities.During and following each virtual home visit, Watson composed ethnographicfieldnotes, creating a detailed case study for each participant that together withthe fieldnotes included partial transcriptions and selected screenshots from thevideo recording of the home visit and photographs of the maps drawn by theparticipants. This corpus of research materials was used for our analysis. Workingwith our sociomaterial perspective, we reviewed each case study with the intentionof surfacing the complexities of our participants’ enactments of digital devices. Inaddressing the question of how digital technologies were ‘made to matter’  during tGiven the dramatic changes to Australia’s awareness of and response to COVID-19 fromour first home visits in February to our virtual home visits in April, it isunsurprising that while the pandemic was not mentioned by participants in the earlyface-to-face fieldwork, COVID-related issues were raised by all participants in thevirtual home visits without prompting by the researcher. As we detail below,discussions about the impact of the pandemic mostly concerned the significant impactof the lockdown on how much time participants spent in their homes and using theirpersonal devices, and changes to how participants and their household members usedthese technologies for work, education, leisure and entertainment, and communicatingand socialising with their close friends and family members compared with pre-COVIDtimes.It is on this last-mentioned use that our discussion in this article focuses,identifying the ways that digital devices and software served to support and enhancematerialities of intimacy and sociality at a distance. We emphasise the embodied andsensory nature of how meaning and matter entangle, to better attend to the unfoldingand generative ways that humans and nonhumans intermesh, and to critically considerwhat these assemblages can do and how they can ‘come to matter’  in peoplThe home visit fieldwork phase as a whole will recruit a total of 30participants. All participants are recruited from Sydney, with an equal numberof women and men and a diverse range of ages, education and ethnic/culturalbackgrounds . To facilitate recruitment, a research company wascommissioned to identify and screen potential participants from its volunteerresearch participant panels, using the sociodemographic characteristicsidentified above as sub-quotas. The virtual home visits completed thus farinvolve the following participants: nine women and three men, aged between 20and 70 years, who were employed in a diverse range of fields and were eitherAustralian-born or had lived in Australia for more than 5 years. We have givenall participants pseudonyms, and to further protect their identity havegeneralised their self-descriptions of details such as suburb of residence,employment and ethnicity.The participants had a diverse range of technological devices in their homes. Allreported owning smartphones, a laptop and/or desktop computer, and using mediastreaming services. In addition, several people owned tablet computers,smartwatches, smart TVs or smart home assistants. All participants noted thatdue to the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions, they had recently increased theamount of time they were spending using these devices. Furthermore, theyreported some changes in device use, including the style and frequency of theircommunications with family and friends using digital devices and software. Ourparticipants spoke of a range of ways they were keeping in touch during thelockdown. Using text-based group messages, with multiple friends or multiplefamily members, was reported by nearly all of our participants. Many noted theyalso ‘still’ spoke to people on the phone. Due to the visual affordances offeredby video calling, this was the most discussed and most affective medium for allof our participants. It is to detailing these technological practices, deviceaffordances and their relational meaning for participants that we now turn.With the smartphone and the iPad, we do lots of video chatting. Ourfamily lives in [another city], so we’re on video chat most days withthe grandparents . . . We did even [video call] before the coronavirus,so we’ve been doing that for, well, since the kids were babies really.Being further away, we’ve sort of had to. (Video interview)During the COVID-19 lockdown, digitised communication was used both for regularcatch-ups that would usually take place by way of phone or video calls and forsocial encounters that would typically take place proximately. The convenienceof being able to use video calling to engage in extended family and other groupsocialities is evident in Danielle’s account. Danielle, aged in her late 30s,lives in northern Sydney with her partner and two young children, workspart-time in health services and is of Anglo-Celtic/European heritage. Daniellespoke about the central role that video calling has played in her familialrelationships for several years now. She explained, I guess it’s different from a phone call because you feel like you’reactually sitting, you know, getting a visual on someone, you feel likeyou are actually talking face-to-face. I like that aspect of it,especially for my parents getting to see the kids. Because otherwisethey grow really quickly and if you don’t actually get to really seethem, you know, they change quickly, so that’s been nice. (Videointerview)In Danielle’s experiences, the affordances of the multisensory features of videocalling technologies were meaningful for her and her children’s relationshipswith family in particular: With friends, you know, you can sit there and have a glass of wine and weget our cheese platters ready. And it feels like we’re sitting, youknow, we could be in the middle of a restaurant, the four of uschatting, nothing’s really changed. So it is nice having that visual togo on as well. (Video interview)While video calling the grandparents was a regular practice in Danielle’shousehold, other forms of sociality had moved to mediated communication onlysince the COVID-19 lockdown. Danielle said that she had been video calling withan established group of friends in lieu of their usual in-person brunchcatch-ups. She commented that despite this new mode of catching up, her sense of‘being with’ the group in the usual way remains: A lot of my friends with kids the same age, who my kids are friends with,because they’re missing out seeing their friends, they’ve been using[video calling] with their friends as well. Little virtual playgroupdates [laughs] . . . It’s a bit chaotic, they usually just run aroundwith the phone, you know, spinning in circles and yelling at each other.(Video interview)For Danielle, the affective texture of her digital socialising is enhanced withthe addition of food and wine so that the friends can see each other eating anddrinking as well as chatting. The social connection afforded by a video callingplatform was also something Danielle was happy her children were able toexperience with their friends during COVID times. She emphasised how theaffordances of mobile devices to readily accompany her children’s movementsaround the house helped them to connect with their friends: First off, we talk a bit about the apps Dev uses most. He uses hissmartphone a lot, mostly to communicate with friends and family members. . . He uses apps like WeChat and WhatsApp a lot, to stay in touch withfamily and friends in Australia and across the world, preferring directindividual and group messages rather than social media platforms to stayin touch with people. Dev says he is now video calling with his friendson the platforms they already use rather than just voice calling. I askhim why he thinks this is and he replies that seeing people’s faces is‘more social’ and ‘more human’ – it helps them better connect and betogether in the current crisis. (Fieldnotes)The fieldnotes from the home visit with Dev also highlight the affordance ofconnection that video calling seemed to offer better than voice-onlycommunication. As an immigrant to Australia from another country, many of Dev’sfamily members are overseas. Dev, aged in his late 60s, works part-time fromhome in professional services. He lives with his wife in southern Sydney, has anadult daughter and is of South Asian heritage. Like Danielle, Dev has useddigital communication technologies to maintain familial relationships for a longtime, but has more recently moved to video calling as his preferred mode: I could see my friends more and, you know, just like catch up with familymore so . . . my best friend lives in [a different Australian city], andif I could hologram her to be closer to me sometimes that would beawesome. That’s probably it, more like connectivity and wanting to becloser to people. But maybe that’s also just coming out more at themoment because we feel so disconnected from people, maybe that’s why I’mfeeling like that would be such a good one for me right now. (Videointerview)This intimate ‘more human’ ambient co-presence was something Holly soughtthroughout the lockdown. Holly, aged in her late 20s, lives in central Sydneywith a housemate, works full-time in real estate and is of Anglo-Celtic/Europeanheritage. In response to the speculative question about an ideal digitaltechnology she would like to see invented, Holly said she wished for a hologramdevice: You worry for them, you’re like, oh I hope you’re OK. Like, if I see themface-to-face, I will know from their reaction or whatever – it’s gettingme emotional even thinking about this – but you get an idea, oh are theyOK, are they coping? . . . I just – I don’t know, [video calling] isgood as in you can see someone and, you know, immediately you can seehow they are, ‘cause if you ring them at 9 o’clock in the morning youcan see what they look like. And you’re like, OK, she’s brushed her hairtoday and, you know [laughs]. (Video interview)Tracy is in her early 40s and works part-time in customer service. She lives insouthern Sydney with her husband, has no dependents, but was helping with herniece’s home schooling during the lockdown, and is of Southern Europeanheritage. The conversation with Tracy was particularly illustrative of the valueof the importance of multisensory and affective engagement during the COVIDperiod, particularly as she was anxious about the health and well-being of hersister and brother-in-law, who were working in essential services: Across these case studies, participants see additional visual elements of digitaldevices affording a co-presence with close relations that is more social andmore intimate than, for instance, text messaging or voice calling. Somethingthat became clear for each of our participants was the significance not only of‘getting a visual’ on someone, to use Danielle’s words, but what Tracy speaks towhen she talks about preferring video messages over more ‘flat’ or unimodalforms of communication.I ask about the changes in technology over the past five years and hetells me it’s considerable – he used to have to go to the post office,for instance, to call his family in [South East Asia], and it would cost$6 for 3 minutes, whereas now he does it from his smartphone and it’s‘free’  . . . I ask how histechnology use has changed in recent times, and Dev reflects that ithasn’t changed in terms of what he’s using, but he feels like he’s usingtechnology a lot more day to day. He’s chatting with friends more, forexample. (Fieldnotes)The case studies also show that the frequency of digitised communication hadincreased during the crisis. Like Danielle, Dev had previously used digitisedcommunication more frequently over the years to keep in contact with his family,but this had increased significantly since the COVID-19 crisis had erupted: Lucas really valued being able to maintain ongoing relationships withfriends and family overseas, and keep up to date with what’s happening‘back home’, by having ‘everyday’ contact – so he can still be activelypart of his extended network/familial collective from a distance.(Fieldnotes)This was also the case for Lucas, who works full-time in project management, isaged in his early 40s and lives in Sydney’s west with his wife and young child.Lucas is of Anglo-Celtic/European heritage, with a history of recent immigrationin his family. He explained having multiple group chats for family, friends andcolleagues who live around the world: We’re doing the occasional Zoom call or kind of, you know, FaceTime call.And I mean, we did that all the time anyway, before. I guess all myfriends knew how to use that as well, so it’s not new. But you kind ofmake the effort a little bit more now, because it’s kind of the thing todo and you’re not seeing anyone [in person]. (Video interview)Chris similarly noted that his use of digital technologies for communicating withfriends and family had changed during the lockdown period, not so much in termsof the devices or software he was using, but rather in frequency. In his late20s, he lives in inner Sydney with his partner and a housemate, currently worksfull-time from home in education/training and is of Anglo-Celtic/Europeanheritage. Chris characterised this change as involving ‘making more of aneffort’ to contact friends and family: We’ll have a Zoom meeting with other friends and we play games . . . It’sa new lockdown thing, every maybe three weeks we play Kahoot with agroup of adults that are all over Australia, friends of ours . . .That’s probably once every three weeks on a Friday night with a drinkand some nibblies . . . We wouldn’t normally see those people becausethey live interstate, so because they’ve been locked down as wellthey’re going ‘Hey, how about we just all get together and play Triviaand talk?’. (Video interview)This additional effort to connect was also evident for Kim – a woman in hermid-50s who works full-time in education, lives in Western Sydney with herhusband and two adult children, and is of Anglo-Celtic/European heritage. Whileusually ‘everyone just watches their own thing in their own rooms’, both withintheir household and with friends further afield, Kim’s family were spending moretime together: We did have a Zoom chat with some friends who live in Spain, and theirkids, which was something we’d never have done before. So that wasreally good to do that by the phone, by the smartphone, and I have had achat or two with some friends who are scattered around the world andsome who are in Sydney as well. (Video interview)Similar experiences were shared by Sue, who is aged in her early 50s and liveswith her husband and two children in eastern Sydney. Sue works part-time inprofessional services, currently from home, and is of Anglo-Celtic/Europeanheritage. She said that she was video calling more with her elderly parents whothey recently have been unable to see in person, saying this had ‘been good forthe kids’. She also noted making more of an effort than usual to connect withfriends: Melissa really warmly recounted her experience attending a virtualwedding recently. She and her partner did more than ‘watch’ this, whichthey could simply have done – instead, they got dressed up, orderedtake-away to be delivered at the right time to have dinner, as if theywere eating something special at the reception. After the ceremony, thespecialised virtual platform which the bride and groom used to host theevent meant that Melissa and her partner were also able to hang out in‘breakout rooms’, where they could chat with a small group of friends asif they were sitting at a table together at the wedding reception. Shenoted that there was a ‘chat routlette’ style option too, where youcould be paired with a random person on the virtual guest list, andwould have six minutes to talk with each other before being randomlyallocated to another conversation – she wasn’t really up for this, shelaughed, but liked that this was an option. (Fieldnotes)While most people’s accounts focused on using digitised communication to maintainand increase the frequency of regular catch-ups with friends and family duringthe COVID lockdown, there were some examples of special events. Some meaningfulexamples for Melissa were her experience attending a virtual 40th birthday partyand an online wedding. Melissa is aged in her early 40s, lives in inner Sydneywith her partner, has no dependents, works in the cultural sector and is ofAnglo-Celtic/European heritage. The ethnographic fieldnotes detail thefollowing: This time has definitely made me connect with people more than I mighthave otherwise, and people [who are] remote as well. Yeah. And you knowthat people are home, so you can schedule a chat, you know, they can’tgo anywhere [laughs]. So it’s like, let’s hang out, what else are yougoing to be doing? I actually do have three things scheduled forSaturday night, I don’t know how that happened! (Video interview)Reflecting across the varied novel and more typical communication-events in whichshe had recently participated, including the birthday party and wedding, Melissasaid, Easter for her family was the real point of learning and change. It wasan important time of the year where they’d usually all get together, andit showed that she and her siblings and parents can and need to stay intouch through this time via apps and platforms like Marco Polo – amessaging service she prefers, because it’s easy to send short videomessages of themselves back and forth rather than texts or only voicemessages. (Fieldnotes)Another notable example, on which both Melissa and Tracy reflected, was theEaster period as a catalyst for their family’s adoption of more group-basedconversations, especially via video calls or messages. In Tracy’s case, thefieldnotes capture how Melissa’s and Tracy’s example of the transformation of significant culturalrituals and celebrations to online engagements demonstrates how the COVIDlockdown crisis forced people to improvise with new ways of enacting these kindsof socialities and intimacies.It’s a different experience. Being part of a musical or going to a gig,or anything like that, is just being around people and having a drinkand having a chat around it as well, so I think that [the digital event]doesn’t quite capture it. (Video interview)While Melissa appreciated the opportunity to digitally engage in special eventsand everyday interactions with friends and family, she also spoke about thedifferences or limitations with what these devices and software ‘capture’ ofin-person experiences: I find [video calling platforms] hard if it’s a really big group chat, Ifind it hard to have any rapport, it’s difficult . . . the kind oftechnology means it’s more challenging than in real life. That’s thebiggest con for me . . . If you’re in a group situation at a venue or ata pub or whatever, just having a chat, it makes much more sense. (Videointerview)On the limitations or challenges of these digital media, she also noted, Melissa definitely seemed a bit exhausted by the time she was spendingusing technology at the moment – her ‘screen time’ had really increased,and working on a computer all day plus being as digitally social as shehas been seems quite taxing physically and emotionally. She spoke aboutbeing tired of looking at her screen so much and of theinterpersonal/social difficulties of having group conversations overZoom, and connected these possibly discrete feelings where her veryembodied way of being and the affordances (and limitations) of thedevice meet. (Fieldnotes)Melissa also spoke about how the increased time spent using devices was notwithout its drawbacks. As the fieldnotes reflect, It’s just that whole thing of, that you’re looking at a screen all day,if you’re working on a screen or, you know, it’s just constant and getsa little bit tedious. You don’t want to be – you can’t dissociate thedevice that you’re working on from the one you’re using for socialinteraction . . . Someone I was working with the other day, he was like,‘I’m just picking up the phone to call you because I don’t want to videochat again’. (Video interview)In her own words, Melissa said, With friends [who she’d usually see in person], we’ve been a little bitlike hermits to be honest, over the last couple of months. And it’s beenreally hard trying to work from home, my husband’s working from home,both kids have been home schooling . . . So we haven’t really, like wehave just kind of been a bit tired and a pretty depressed about thewhole thing [laughs]. Watching the news and watching Netflix and tryingto get outside a bit and that’s been pretty much it. (Videointerview)Sue made some similar observations, noting that the stressors of the COVIDpandemic shaped both what kinds of connections she sought out and how she feltabout them: really OK . . . And, yeah, I don’t know, like, Ijust, I feel like it’s good because at the moment, currently, we can seepeople, but I don’t think – it’s not normal, like, it’s artificial, youknow what I mean. Well, it’s not really artificial, because you’reseeing the person, but it’s not real. (Videointerview)I think, yeah [video calling] is good because it keeps you in touch withpeople. But there’s nothing like being face to face with people. Like,you know, you don’t get if somebody’s OK, you know,For Tracy too, while she commented that she was appreciative of the opportunitiesto see as well as hear her relatives using video calling, she was stillreluctant to characterise these kinds of encounters as ‘real’ compared withface-to-face interactions: As these comments suggest, people can ‘get together’ through the affordances ofdigitised communication technologies. However, while digital communication hasbecome normalised as part of everyday life for all of our participants, thereare many sensory and embodied dimensions of such interactions that typicallynever feel as ‘normal’ or as ‘real’ as proximate encounters.as a crisis , modes ofself-presentation  and digital functionalities (e.g. deployment of theblurring facility) are used can affect the ways in which intimacy and sociality at adistance come to be enacted. Moreover, the human-digital-home assemblage is ofcourse entangled with other assemblages which potentially play a role. Theseinclude, for instance, governmental announcements about the projected length oflockdown, the slowing of bandwidth by providers, working or education at homecontingencies. Put simply, in exploring how the material and sensory qualities ofdigitally mediated communications help make those communications matter, we alsoneed to situate those qualities within expanded assemblages that do justice to thesociomaterial complexities that participants daily face. Future fieldwork andanalysis of our case studies will be devoted towards some of these questions.and hear each other, and collectively ‘check in’ rather than be‘checked up on’ – can work to materially heighten the intimacies and socialitieswhich sustain these relations. Importantly, for our participants, these changes arenot seriously seen or desired as a ‘new normal’ in an ongoing way. They are acontingent supplement born of necessity, different from and less ‘real’ or ‘human’than proximate relationships, but nevertheless of central significance andmeaningful in the crisis context.What our present findings do highlight is the importance of digital communicativetechnologies in times of crisis and distance. This novel social and structuralsituation of distance brought about by the COVID pandemic reveals some of thedigital media practices and meanings significant for how people affectively manageand relationally respond to this distance. Layered sensory affordances andpossibilities for ongoing and increased frequency of contact – where people can see


Themes were then correlated with two indicators of well-being in solitude: self-determined motivation for solitude and peaceful mood. Several prominent themes emerged when talking about time spent in solitude. With the exception of feeling competent in solitude, which was described frequently but consistently unrelated to self-reported well-being regardless of age, benefits of solitude tended to shift over the lifespan. Some qualities, such as a sense of autonomy , were salient and consequential for everyone, but increasingly so from adolescence to older adulthood. Older adults also reported feeling most peaceful in solitude and described their social connection and alienation less frequently, suggesting they see solitude and social time as more distinct states. Findings are discussed in light of existing work on solitude across the lifespan, and theoretical frameworks that spoke well to the data .Solitude – the state of being alone and not physically with another – can be rewarding. The present research explored the potential benefits of solitude from a pragmatist approach: a ground-up, top-down perspective that is receptive to new knowledge but informed by theory. Participant recruitment was stratified by age and gender, and the sample involved 2,035 individuals including adolescents (13–16 years), adults (35–55 years), or older adults (65+ years). Data were analyzed with a mixed-methods approach. Coded themes from brief narratives about solitude were extracted, and their frequencies (i.e.,  Solitude – the state of being alone and not physically with another  – is incThe current research explored content within brief written narratives of “everyday” solitude. The primary interest was in the lessons learned, and benefits of, time spent alone, because less is known about these aspects of solitude. However, to avoid biasing participants toward an unduly positive view of solitude that would lead them to describe benefits they would not otherwise endorse, instructions asked about both benefits and costs. Furthermore, the study examined whether and how these qualities of solitude change across the lifespan, from adolescence to adulthood, because previous work suggests the characteristics and challenges associated with developmental stages affect people’s experiences in solitude .The focus was on time spent in solitude during 3 months of the COVID-19 outbreak, which took place during the time of this research. During this time, solitude was presumed to be challenging and individuals spent more time in solitude than they had before. Despite this increased exposure to solitude, few emotional costs were identified as a direct function of spending time in solitude during these early months . At the Multiple studies point to the importance of taking a lifespan perspective in understanding solitude. From adolescence , onward Very recently, qualitative work was conducted which involved interviews with older adults and their adult caregivers  about thSolitude benefits may evolve early in life, with benefits readily increasing from adolescence through older adulthood. While pre-adolescents (aged 11 and 12) may struggle with the process of separating from their parents and thus experience anxiety during time spent alone, middle adolescents have expressed they increasingly appreciate time alone , and thrSelf-determination theory SDT;  providesWell-being in solitude is also experienced through peaceful  affect. Loneliness is associated with detrimental solitude (or self-isolation) and has substantial implications for mental and physical health . But lonSalience of solitude benefits can be explored by asking participants to reflect on what they learn and how they benefit from their time alone. Salient benefits should be spontaneously described with greater frequency. However, to understand the significance  of those themes, it is useful to evaluate how they relate to separate perceptions of well-being during solitude. There has been little research documenting the gains of solitude across the adolescent to older adult lifespan. The current research was intended to build understanding of potential gains made in solitude, while staying open to the potential costs of being alone. Brief narratives of solitude were examined over 3months, through a pragmatist approach that sought to maximize both insights from data and from theory What can be learned or gained from solitude? (QuantitativeAre these benefits (of RQ1) associated with self-determined motivation for solitude? (Quantitative)Are these benefits (of RQ1) associated with two types of peaceful mood – relaxation and the absence of loneliness – in solitude?  boys, 464 (46.3%) girls, and 3 (0.4%) subjects who identified as another gender]. Adult participants were n=523 individuals between 25 and 51 years of age,n=511 individuals [215 men (42.1%) and 296 (57.9%) women] between the ages of 59–85 years.This study analyzed data from three large purposive samples selected on the basis of age, gender, and a broad geographic spread within the United Kingdom. A first, adolescent sample consisted of Adolescents were recruited through ICM Unlimited, a social research polling company.A diverse set of prompts was used to approach the issue of solitude benefits through a number of complementary lenses. Participants responded to two questions: “Over the past 3months many of us have spent quite a bit of time alone or without face-to-face contact with friends and family due to the coronavirus. During this time people have experienced many feelings, including happy, sad, lonely, and feeling relaxed. We are interested in hearing your unique experiences during this time, giving as much detail as you feel comfortable. Please tell us in a few sentences or in as much detail as you would like to give, as if you are writing in a journal.” This three-form design maximizes data resources to address complex issues with efficiency . Given tdoes not apply to me at all) to 7 (applies to me very much).To ensure participants were thinking about time spent in solitude, the following measures all started with instructions to think back to “a time when you may have been on your own or alone.” Participants responded to the following items using a scale ranging from 1 , and loneliness was measured with a single face-valid item (lonely). The average score of the four items assessing relaxed mood was further averaged with the reversed score for loneliness to reflect equal parts of both in a final mood measure. The two constructs were correlated moderately to highly: Themes were generated based on explorations of the raw data by five independent research assistants (and none of the authors) who were instructed on the basic concept that solitude can hold both costs and benefits. For practical considerations, adolescent data were considered first, and then, the group of five research assistants identified additional codes for themes unique to adult and older adult data. No analyses were conducted until codes had been set for the full sample. Three extensive conversations were held to discuss potential themes. These were moderated by the first author, whose job it was to minimize redundancy in different codes, and to establish both a conceptual clarity of codes and a common definition for each code agreed on by the research assistants.Thus, decisions were made as a group to optimize each code for the following qualities: (1) comprehensiveness of data captured, (2) redundancy reduction, and (3) conceptual clarity. At this point, placeholder names were given to each code as a structure for undertaking the actual coding of the data. In most cases, identical themes observed across age groups allowed comparisons between adolescent, adult, and older adult data. But, in some cases, adults also raised themes not described by adolescents. In those cases, with respect to some narrative codes, only adult and older adult data could be compared.kappa>0.80 for all codes. As pre-registered, to generate the final coding structure, a narrative was coded if any researcher identified the theme in that particular narrative.Following the process of identifying codes, naïve researchers responsible for this task read through responses and coded narratives in terms of whether they had a theme present (coded 1) or absent (coded 0). Two researchers independently coded each data point, and a third independently coded a random subset. Following disagreements, researchers discussed the full set of codes and agreed on each theme for each response. Researchers were also given freedom to retain original codes if they did not see eye-to-eye. Final interrater agreement was The five researchers who determined the coding scheme identified a large number of codes . A multi-step process was undertaken to identify higher order themes and to achieve greater code parsimony. First, the lead author of this paper considered codes in light of current theoretical approaches and literature in solitude reviewed above  reported they had studied adolescents (n=3), adults (n=6), and older adults (n=2) in relation to solitude. Each was asked to drag individual codes into their ideal overarching theme, or alternatively to identify if any code did not fit any of the proposed themes well. Specific codes were distributed into a theme when a majority vote of the eight experts placed them in the category  analyses predicted themes and mood from age groups (adolescents vs. adults vs. older adults). MANOVAs first tested statistically significant omnibus effects across all outcomes (themes or self-reports) to reduce the chance of spurious effects of age. These analyses were used to describe differences in salience of themes across the different age groups .Second, linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the practical significance of themes on well-being by testing the relations between themes and well-being in solitude measures. It was presumed that those frequent themes that relate to well-being are not only salient, but also consequential for wellness. Simultaneously, moderations by age were estimated through testing interaction terms for each theme in the same models. This additional step asked the question: does the significance of certain themes differ across age groups, such that a theme relates more strongly to self-reported well-being at certain ages? To reduce spurious effects and the number of analyses, themes were modeled simultaneously in multiple regression models.Competence involved felt efficacy, a focus on skill-building, and engagement in activities. When individuals responded that they engaged in activities and created structure in their days, they also felt they could build skills and feel effective in daily activities.“Doing my own hobbies that I am interested in that don't require the presence of others” “I have spent my time with cooking, painting art and craft and good games videos” “I've learned some new languages and studied some new things on the internet I've been thinking after lockdown to enjoy life more” “when I'm alone I tend to learn new things, exercise more and play more music” “It's absolutely fine to be on your own, you have got more time to do things you have not got time to do, like reading or online learning” “I've learned that I prefer more productive and studious pastimes as opposed to things like watching TV and playing video games. I really only discovered this by accident; I decided to try and learn Spanish and found myself enjoying the experience” “I have caught up with a lot of reading and completed an online course in a subject that really interests me. I did well on the course and this has encouraged me to pursue the subject further” “Good - pottering in garden, being creative, listening to music, walking in the park - saying hello to people, at the end of the day having crossed most items off my to-do list, rooting out the stuff lurking at the back of my food cupboard and using it, experimenting with recipes” Themes of autonomy involved a sense of self-reliance, elimination of pressure, and self-connection. Solitude that had autonomy facilitated a connection with the self that was conducive to a sense of choice, and freedom from the pressures and responsibilities set by others.“I like myself and my own company” “I can rely on my parents but I would prefer to do things myself and my own way” “Be more independent and think for myself” “How to love and be comfortable with my own company. It has made me more confident about myself” “I learnt to listen to my own desires, needs and wishes. I tried to enjoy the moments and the activities I really like” “Freedom to relax and be myself whilst alone. To do things that I want to do without distraction or interruption” “It has been easy as I said before, I am really comfortable with myself. [self-growth: I have the time I need to reflect on things], with no pressure. I feel in control” “I found the times on my own to be good as I was able to devote time to doing the things I enjoy” “I have been able to feel quite relaxed, feeling I had nobody to answer to but myself” Experts agreed that self-growth was further made up of self-reflection, development of coping ability, and spirituality. Examples of these include as:“Time spent alone has been really good to reflect on where I am going in my life” “Gives me time to work things out and collect my thoughts” “When I am alone I can reflect and organise my thoughts on my life direction and problem-solve any issues I may have been facing. I can also check-in with my plans for the future and make sure I am on the right path” “Good - acceptance and appreciation of the present moment. Presence. Meditating” “The times spent alone have allowed me to relax away from the constant demands on my time. But they've given me time to reflect on how my life has improved now that I'm married with children” “I have learned that it is nice to have some 'alone' time. It gives me time to think clearer without someone else being around interrupting my thought processes” “It has been good. It has brought me a much calmer outlook to things happening in my life” Disrupted well-being was made up the loss of familiarity, lack of structure, and inactivity, or missing human contact.“Being alone has been bad because I sleep lots and do not do much” “It was hard when I had no structure to work towards” “My times on my own weren't too good, because I'm far from home and I literally feel like there no one that I know better in miles” “Being in solitude can have negative effect on one’s psychological or mental state thus it’s not particularly all cool to feel alone” “There have been occasions when I have been on my own with no plans and I have not left my bed all day. This day was spent procrastinating until I felt very negative about my life overall” “I have learned that on days when I am alone, if I don't plan ahead and set myself a task or reward for the day, that I will end up spending most of the day in bed, not doing anything productive. I often feel a bit down about this as I feel that I have wasted a day” Interpersonal connection involved a sense that solitude had in some way contributed to appreciating relationships, the use of technology for reaching out, and diversity in interactions.“I have learnt I really value them and I speak to my friends online everyday as I miss them” “Connecting with friends online has made me feel good and part of a community” “Being alone from my parents has enabled me to think and reflect back upon our relationship and the parts that I value and to focus on this rather than the negative things that were missing from my childhood” “Time spend on my own is easier with video call with my family and friends” “I have learned that I need people around me throughout the day. I miss the day to day conversations with people” “Being alone gives an added freedom but also brings a closer relationship to family through more regular contact” “I’ve learned that I need people more than I thought” Alienation was made up of disrupted relationships as a function of solitude .“I miss my friends and being able to interact with them” “I feel I have no friends” “For a long while, I was fine spending time by myself, as I am a loner by nature. However, recently I have felt very frustrated and angry that I don't have any friends to call on” “I have learned that I don't have as many good friends as I had hoped.” “… I spend a lot of time dealing with my family's needs” Self-care involved one original theme described by adults and older adults, which concerned activities focused on caring for oneself and rejuvenation.“I focused on myself and I tried to exercise ….” “I learned to take care about my own health. To cook healthy food for myself, to exercise” “I have learned that given sufficient time to myself free of interruptions, I can be productive and get things done. I've also learned that rest is really important and that doing nothing is okay. I've learned this simply by having free time to myself and either being able to plan and get on with the mountain of jobs I have built up, or by sitting and watching Netflix when the weather is too bad to go outside” “I do things I enjoy when on my own like yoga and Pilates and this makes me find being on my own easy and enjoyable” via zoom for mindfulness and this has helped me relax and it’s my choice to be quiet and alone after my mindfulness classes. It’s good just to switch off from all that’s going on in the world” “I’ve been attending an 8-week course Appreciating the environment involved one original theme described by adults and older adults, which concerned activities focused on caring for oneself and rejuvenation.“Focusing on something, for example gardening, has been an enjoyable hobby to spend this time alone. I think the act of doing something manually, and especially in contact with nature, helps grounding yourself and it sort of becomes a moment of meditation almost, when you can just free your mind from everything and just focus on the task you are doing at that moment” “I also enjoy going for quiet walks with nothing, but birds chirping and few cars” “Being alone makes you appreciate the silence and nature and it gives peace” “I prefer to walk in the hills on long day hikes on my own, being at one with nature and feeling the bones of the land” “Good things of being alone is you can completely switch off from distractions and appreciate nature” “I have been alone when I have taken walks out in the countryside and have reflected on what is important to me” .Wilks’ Lambda F=35.22, p<0.001, d=0.19. Results of the MANOVA also showed main effects of age group on frequencies of narrative codes  than the other groups, although competence was seen as a common benefit of solitude in other age groups as well (41.9% of older adults and 42.1% of adolescents). Adults also described self-growth as a benefit of solitude at higher rates (61.6%) than either of the other age groups (37.6–43.2%), and they described more self-care as a frequent benefit (18.9% of adults described solitude as a place for self-care). However, adults also described more disrupted well-being , suggesting that alongside the beneficial themes reviewed above, they also thought more about the costs of solitude.From pairwise comparisons, a number of themes were described most often by adults, when compared to adolescents or older adults. Notably, adults described autonomy themes. Across adulthood, autonomy as a benefit of solitude was a common theme (53.8–54.7%), which was apparent, but less frequent, in adolescents (22.8%).Notably, where adolescents differed was on the salience of interpersonal connection, 20.0%) and also were less likely to describe alienation as a theme of solitude (2.4%). In summary, older adults focused heavily on autonomy themes and were least likely to discuss relationship themes (either in a positive or negative light).Finally, older adults described fewer relational costs and benefits. Specifically, older adults placed the least emphasis on solitude as making a greater contribution to relationships  vs. adults (0) and older adults (0): Dummy code 2 contrasting older adults to adults: older adults (1) vs. adults (0) and younger adults (0). In a final set of regression models, interaction effects of age group X narrative code were tested predicting the self-reported well-being.Hierarchical linear regression models predicted the three self-report composites concerning motivation and mood in solitude from coded narratives. Step 1 included main effect predictors across the lifespan, and Step 2 included age groups as a separate dummy-coded predictor. In line with the pre-registered analytic plan set before the start of the study: Dummy code 1 contrasting adolescents to adults: adolescents (β=0.17) and more self-determined motivation for solitude (β=0.26).Across all age groups  and less self-determined motivation for solitude (β=−0.13). The links between disrupted well-being narratives and more detrimental self-reported outcomes in solitude were stronger for older adults than adults , but the strongest negative relations between alienation and mood were found for adults. Across the lifespan, connection correlated with more self-determined motivation (β=0.06). Further examining simple slopes, adolescents who described connection reported consistent and robust wellness benefits during solitude. Only adolescents benefited when discussing connection themes, and they drove the main effect observed across the lifespan.Relationships with others were reflected in seeking positive interpersonal connection and, also, felt alienation. β=0.05), yet it was linked to less peaceful mood during solitude (β=−0.05). The adolescent versus adult code moderated the relation between growth themes and self-reported well-being. Examining this further, adolescents showed a significant positive link between growth themes and self-determined motivation, and a positive trend between growth and peaceful mood. On the other hand, adults reported negative trends on both measures.Growth, involving self-reflection, developing coping, and spirituality, showed intriguing inconsistencies. Across the lifespan, growth correlated with more self-determined motivation  of these narratives with that code. The lack of relations with competence was surprising, because it was reported at relatively high rates (around 40%) across the lifespan. Thus, it was a commonly reported benefit of solitude, but not one that translated to more self-reported well-being.This mixed-method research was designed to define the salience  and significance (quantitatively) of benefits and costs of solitude in order to build a richer understanding of how solitude is experienced across the lifespan. Over 2,000 individuals in their adolescence, adulthood, or older adulthood described the gains, losses, and lessons learned from solitude. To define the salience of specific experiences in solitude, the frequencies by which themes were reported in the narratives of individuals from these different age groups were tested, as were convergences between extracted themes and self-reported well-being (self-determined motivation and peaceful mood) in solitude.Differences among age groups were evident in survey responses. Adults reported the most self-determined motivation for solitude, but the least peaceful mood. Older adults reported the least self-determined motivation for solitude when compared to adults, but the most peaceful mood when alone. This finding stands in contrast with qualitative work showing older adults are likely to choose solitude , but theThrough the process of coding narratives, overarching themes were identified that characterized gains, losses, and lessons learned. Three prominent themes extracted were consistent with views of self-determination theory ,b, a guiin solitude can be distinguished from self-determined motivation for solitude, which concerns one’s choice to volitionally enter into solitude; arguably, both are important .Although psychological need satisfaction has not been studied in the context of solitude, it is reasonable to assume that one could feel more or less psychologically need-satisfied when alone. For example, when alone one may feel free to be oneself and undertake tasks deemed interesting or important. This autonomy satisfaction Previous research  and theoWhile this was the case in the current study, autonomy seemed to play a particularly important and beneficial role for older adults that shaped how they felt when alone and was partly responsible for a “peaceful mood” during their solitude. One explanation for increasing associations between the autonomy theme and well-being across the lifespan is that, since self-connection and self-initiation are still naturally developing at different rates in young people from age 13 to 20 years , the sucAlongside experiencing autonomy, even when individuals are alone, they may still seek and value connection to others since relatedness is a fundamental human need , and becAlthough adolescents did not differ from adults in terms of the salience of connecting to others when alone , they were more likely than adults to spontaneously discuss feeling alienated in solitude. It may be that adolescents are finding time alone particularly disruptive to their relationships, a developmentally appropriate reaction given that a primary task of adolescent development is constructing and understanding themselves in their friendships . FurtherThe final of the three psychological needs, competence, can be readily experienced in solitude when individuals undertake activities and tasks that are challenging but achievable . Indeed,Adults appeared to describe the most intrapersonal movement and upheaval during their solitude time. Compared to both adolescents and older adults, adults described more frequent growth themes: They engaged in more self-reflection, and they developed more patience and engaged spirituality. At the same time, adults also reported more disrupted well-being: They felt aimless and without structure, and they described the sense that familiarity was disrupted by their time spent alone. While growth has the potential for long-term benefits through learning about the self, emotions, and goals , it ofteFinally, although self-care and appreciating the environment were two themes that emerged for adults and older adults, they were not as highly represented as one might expect. This may be because the study questions prompted reflection of what is gained and learned from solitude, rather than delving into the context that gives rise to positive solitude, where, for example, appreciating the environment may be more salient. Specifically, when individuals have nature around them, they report their time to be more peaceful and rewarding . SimilarThese set of findings should be viewed in light of several limitations of the research. First, data were collected over a single time point and participants were asked to reflect back to solitude over a period of time. While this narrative approach is not particularly problematic in light of the current focus on identifying the most salient recollections of solitude, this research would be well suited to ecological momentary assessments (daily diary studies) that ask participants to reflect back to recent solitude and describe it soon after the alone event took place. Such an approach would pick up on more nuanced benefits and costs that may be forgotten over the course of time. It would allow for more time-specific correlations between themes and affect as a function of a specific occurrence of solitude rather than across time, correlations which will likely be stronger as they capture a specific and well-defined experience.Second, though the study used a mixed-methods approach that reduced common method variance , the cordespite lockdowns during this time are particularly informative for understanding the potential gains from time spent alone.Further, this research involved young- to mid- adolescents aged 13–16 years, but evidence suggests that the capacity to enjoy solitude develops throughout adolescence, and older adolescents are more like to benefit from time spent alone . Older aThis study highlighted potential benefits, as well as costs, of solitude and how they vary over three age groups. Alongside understanding findings in light of self-determination theory, the study findings converged with the affordances described by autonomy offered by solitude but were interested in its opportunities to feel competent and to experience self-growth. They were also less likely to feel disrupted well-being in solitude, and more likely to experience a feeling of interpersonal connections during that time. Adults (age 25–51) were invested in solitude primarily as a place of self-growth and competence where they could focus on skill-building and feel effective and engaged. Unlike adolescents, but similar to their elders, adults were particularly invested in reaping the benefits of autonomy in solitude. Many felt connected to others but are also the most likely of the three groups to experience disrupted well-being in solitude. Finally, older adults (age 59–85) were slightly less interested in competence and much less interested in self-growth possible in solitude. But they were invested in autonomy – a space in which they could feel self-reliant and connect with themselves, free from the pressure of others.In short, adolescents (age 13–16 years) had little interest in the The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the University of Reading School of Psychology Ethics Committee (no 2020-080-NW). Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.NW, HH, and T-VN conceptualized the project and developed the methodology. NW conducted data collection, organized coders, led data analysis, and led manuscript preparation with active contributions from HH and T-VN. HH and T-VN supported data analysis and interpretation. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.This research was funded by the ERC grant SOAR-859810 awarded to the NW.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.