Human Mobility during COVID-19 in the Context of Mild Social Distancing: Implications for Technological Interventions

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought both tangible and intangible damage to our society. Many researchers studied about its societal impacts in the countries that had implemented strong social distancing measures such as stay-at-home orders. Among them, human mobility has been studied extensively due to its importance in flattening the curve. However, mobility has not been actively studied in the context of mild social distancing. Insufficient understanding of human mobility in diverse contexts might provide limited implications for any technological interventions to alleviate the situation. To this end, we collected a dataset consisting of more than 1M daily smart device users in the third-largest city of South Korea, which has implemented mild social distancing policies. We analyze how COVID-19 shaped human mobility in the city from geographical, socio-economic, and socio-political perspectives. We also examine mobility changes for points of interest and special occasions such as transportation stations and the case of legislative elections. We identify a typology of populations through these analyses as a means to provide design implications for technological interventions. This paper contributes to social sciences through in-depth analyses of human mobility and to the CSCW community with new design challenges and potential implications.