If you’ve felt the urge to become more and more self-sufficient at work and in your home, and to stay in and stream movies rather than go out, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Cocooning — or the need to protect oneself from the harsh, unpredictable realities of the outside world — is the most important trend of the past 40 years, according to US futurist Faith Popcorn (real name Plotkin). She coined the verb “to cocoon” in the 1980s to describe a tendency for people to avoid trendy restaurants and clubs, and instead hunker down at home, order in food instead of shopping in supermarkets, nestle and enjoy themselves in their own homes. But in her 1996 book, Clicking, Popcorn added a sinister undercurrent to the trend: “Where we once cocooned because it was fun we now cocoon out of fear.”
Rising crime in cities and the plain rudeness, loudness and unpredictability of the outside world is turning us into some kind of wary and secluded moth that reluctantly leaves the cocoon it has made.
Naturally, this trend has a bearing on business, and Popcorn and her company, BrainReserve, have advised many businesses on how to harness it. “The team collaborated with IBM on the PS1, the first home computer, and helped a top-tier hotel company understand the need for smart, curated lodging that borrowed the best from one’s home environment,” the company’s website says.
It has been a pioneer in some of the services we take for granted today. “In an ongoing consulting relationship with a Fortune 200 company, Faith and her trend strategists developed the model for on-demand, home-delivered dinners; the team also helped a legacy beverage develop a home- and family-based brand positioning ... that reinvigorated their business.”
When asked what was spot-on about Popcorn’s 1990s predictions, Bronwyn Williams, a futurist, economist and trends analyst at Johannesburg-based Flux Trends, said: “She essentially predicted people would spend more time and money at home, alone. Which is what we were all forced to do during global Covid lockdowns. Much of that enforced behaviour has been normalised, and enabled by technology, leading to a $600bn shift from out-of-home spending (food, groceries, lifestyle products, clothes) to in-home (e-commerce, food delivery etc).”
The desire to separate ourselves from the rest of humanity is not new and is not going to go away, she says. “Cocooning is not a one-way trend but more of a cyclical trend. In the 1970s ‘conversation pits’ and personal nuclear fallout bunker architecture probably reflected the last high point of cocooning during those politically and economically uncertain times. Sound familiar? It should.”
The hedonistic “bigger is better” 1980s and 1990s that followed represented a trough in the cocooning social cycle, she adds. “But billionaires are again building bunkers, the ultimate cocooning status symbol.”
You don’t need to be a billionaire to get away from it all, however. For about €99,900 you can buy a dinky Ecocapsule. It is a “beautiful, fully off-grid, smart, self-sustainable micro-unit, powered only by solar and wind energy. It allows you to stay in remote places out of reach of urban networks,” says the Slovakian-based company on its website, which shows one of the white, egg-shaped capsules set down on a pristine beach with luxuriant palms and aquamarine water.
The healing power of nature has become even more necessary for people living in densely built-up areas; luckily SA still has many coastal and mountain areas where you can go and isolate for a few weeks. And as it happens, says Williams, in SA’s growing cities we have been perfecting cocooning for decades.
“SA is a world trend setter for ‘cocooning’. Our security estates that rich families never need to leave, our boomed-off suburbs and high walls and electric fences mean we have lived isolated lives for generations.”
In line with global trends, those who can afford to in SA are investing in smart homes to ensure as hassle-free and comfortable a life as possible. What is not entirely applicable to the SA context, however, is that “remote work, which enables this behaviour, is a luxury not a norm for most people”, she says. Many still have to commute to work, which adds significant stress to one’s day.
The future of cocooning seems secure. BrainsReserve says: “Cocooning continues to drive cultural shifts, expressing the desire for safety, comfort and privacy as the outside world proves wearing and tearing and unnavigable. Our civilisation is looking for more and more protection as political divisiveness grows; rogue germs ... that don’t respond to medications spread; and crazy weather — like the floods caused by Cyclone Idai in Africa — surges.”
Williams sounds a note of caution, though: there is an unhealthy side to cocooning. “Humans are animals — flesh and blood pack creatures who require physical contact to survive. ‘Skin hunger’ is associated with diminished physical and mental health.” Loneliness and disconnection in ano-touch society affect both individuals and communities — leading to mental health issues and undermining democracy and social solidarity. We see this in shifts towards selfish investment choices, and political shifts towards nationalism, conservatism and isolationism.
A Johannesburger who has opted for a comfortable, cocooned life that reduces stress is writer and poet Arja Salafranca, who lives in a boomed-off cluster complex. “My home has always been a sanctuary,” she says.
Home improvement is a priority in her budget, and renovating the unit helped her get “the white walls I craved, laminate floors and a new kitchen.
“I use soft lighting at night, soft lamps, not the blare of overhead lighting, and I just love being here. My study and bedroom are places that reflect me. Providing life’s comforts for me is uncapped Wi-Fi, a decent music system so I can stream music, a TV box for my occasional TV watching ... gas heaters and power stations for load-shedding and load reduction.”
When Salafranca left a full-time job as an editor in the city, she began equipping her spare room as a study so that she would have all the tools necessary to be self-employed.
“I have a lovely study with a big L-shaped desk, a laptop with a monitor attached to it so I work on a bigger screen, a laser printer and scanner, and a Bluetooth speaker so I can play music when I work. I installed air conditioning as Johannesburg’s summers are ferocious.”
Kitting out your nest the way you want it is important to most home-dwellers but even more so when your home doubles as a work space. “At the time I bought my home I had a full-time job, although I worked at home on Fridays, and wrote over weekends, so it was important that my work/writing space was inviting,” she says. “Now I am self-employed, and I love going to my study in the morning, opening the curtains and blinds, the sun streaming in, turning on my computer. I feel at peace in my space, it’s a joy to ‘go to work’ or to go there to write. It’s my favourite room.”
Like many people who are not acquainted with the expression cocooning, Salafranca was a little mystified to have it applied to her. But I have it on good authority that she is indeed one of those moths who prefer their own cosy and controlled environment. “To be honest I have never thought of myself as a ‘cocooner’!” she says.
“I’ve always loved alone time, and need it as a writer. I like what living in a big city offers — art movies and theatre and ice-cream at 3am if you need it — but living in a city like Johannesburg means you drive in traffic, you often drive distances to do things and see friends, so I need some down time from all that. I take advantage of what the city offers, but I also like going to people’s homes for supper rather than exorbitantly priced restaurants, and I like having people over.
“With Covid-19, much more was suddenly available at home, so you don’t need to see movies on a schedule when movies show, now you can stream. And although you can’t (yet) stream SA theatre, I’m a fan of National Theatre Live from the UK. So it’s ‘easier’ to cocoon, to avoid parts or places in the city that aren’t much fun, noisy restaurants, for example, as there is more to do at home.
“I love nothing better than a Sunday at home, no driving or dealing with other drivers, reading in quiet or with music, or writing in my study. I feel like I am on holiday then, and I face the working week feeling rejuvenated. Home really is my sanctuary in every way, and I think it’s because I like my own company, and my home looks the way I want it to.”
The successful cocooner knows their home should be a place where they can easily do hobbies or whatever gives them joy. You’ll see them at the hardware shop on weekends, buying home improvement supplies, or the nursery to buy things they can plant (getting your hands dirty in the garden is a big cocooning trend) or at the few haberdasheries that are still open. Popcorn said it in Clicking in 1996: “You may want to dust off the Singer sewing machine and get out your needles and threads. Home sewing is making a comeback.”
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