predictions (and hope) for a post-pandemic world
I left my New York apartment with a bag packed for one week away. I’m now in week five of waking up in my childhood bedroom. I watch my mom disinfect my dad when he comes home from work. I go on daily walks and awkwardly smile at approaching neighbors as I scurry to the other side of the street. I go on FaceTime first dates and party with friends over Zoom. I consciously think about how much toilet paper I use.
I — just like you, just like all of us — am trying to make sense of this shaken up life, wondering when and if normalcy will ever return. COVID-19 has trapped us in our homes for an indefinite future, yielding the power of an active shooter to warrant shelter in place.
This new way of living is reorienting our relationships to ourselves, one another, and the outside world. In solitude, we’re forced to face our repressed insecurities and “when I finally have time” to-do lists. “Stay safe and well” is a casual email sign-off. We fear contact with anyone outside our homes, even our closest friends. We’ve put all travel on hold, with the understanding that staying isolated is, paradoxically, a remarkable act of global solidarity.
Coronavirus has plunged us into frenzied uncertainty, but a crisis also surfaces opportunity: new norms for better living, a greater awareness for the collective good, and a renewed appreciation for human touch and connection. Trying to make sense of the madness, I dug through expert analyses, emerging research, and opinion articles to pull together eight predictions for what our lives could become (and what we might even look forward to).
1. Some of us will never go back to the office.
In the tumbling economy, remote work platforms like Zoom and Dropbox are flourishing. Companies formerly resistant to remote working are now forced to reevaluate and embrace new realities of what it means to go to work. If we prove productive at home, we’ll have the case to continue working in sweatpants, our bosses will have less reason to deny it, and our co-workers will enjoy more surprise cameos from pups and kids.
2. From songs to sweat, we’ll expect everything to stream.
While gyms and fitness studios have been forced to lay off employees, the business of online fitness, cycling and yoga classes is thriving. Comedians, artists, musicians, and even Broadway are live-streaming free content. The world’s biggest pop stars are holding concerts from their living rooms, singing to their selfie screens with thousands tuned in via Instagram Live. This new wave of online offerings marks an irreversible shift in how we’ll expect to access content, forcing our physical go-tos to reorient around digital.
3. We’ll keep the convenience of one-click everything.
Instead of asking, “Can we do this online?” we’ll ask, “Why should we do this in person?” Today’s avoidance of human contact is boosting anything that can be done from the web — grocery deliveries, online learning, virtual real estate closings, and telemedicine. Even when we’re released from isolation, we’ll be hard-pressed to give up the ease of running errands from our couches.
4. We’ll spend our dollars for a better world.
We’re already reassessing the places and brands we normally frequent, taking note of the businesses that stepped up and those that let us (and their people) down. We’ll make spending decisions with the collective good in mind. We’ll forgo the cheap restaurants that deny paid sick leave to their staff, because we now know how one sick worker can shut down all of our lives.
5. For a while, touch will feel dangerous.
We have never been more paranoid about the consequences of a mindless nose scratch, passing shoulder brush, and even shared air in a subway car. While this paranoia will likely fade with time, it could leave us with an underlying anxiety of things like handshakes, crowds, and enclosed spaces — a fear that may be difficult to dispel, no matter how frequently we wash our hands.
6. Yet, we’ll crave in-person connection.
Forty-two percent of 18,000 Chinese citizens surveyed reported anxiety and depression while on lockdown. Research shows that the absence of physical touch has a profound impact on our stress levels, and in times of grief or fear, touch is the best method of comfort. Coronavirus, in its cruelty, requires complete isolation for the sick. And even if we’re lucky and healthy, social isolation means enduring uncertainty and grief alone. After surviving this scarcity, every touch, kiss and hug will become that much more desired and cherished.
7. In hardship, we’ll get by on smaller slices of joy.
It’s no surprise that we limit our spending when the going gets tough. Yet in past crises — from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Great Recession of 2008 — the market for smaller luxuries, such as lipstick, prospered. Economists attribute this to the fact that we need an outlet to lift our spirits in tumultuous times. Despite economic uncertainty, we can keep our chins up for an uptick of “treat-yourself” items that will bring us a bit of cheer.
8. We’ll demand drastic changes.
Whether it’s improving our healthcare, closing the divide between rich and poor, or combating climate change, we are using newly freed up time in isolation and a declining state of the world to shout demands from the rooftops. As COVID-19 exposes our broken systems, our voices will rise with intensity and urgency to enact extreme measures for real action.
While the world will never return to the way we once knew it, I have full confidence that we will adapt to a new normal — because that is the beauty and necessity of being human.
But we all know it will be a difficult ride. In these coming weeks, we’ll continue aching for our freedom. We’ll grieve for lives lost, as we learn with every body count that the virus does not discriminate against age, race, identity or orientation (though our healthcare systems might). We’ll argue about whether our governments are doing enough. We’ll get angry at those who ignore isolation, sending aggressive DMs to our partying friends and pleading with our parents to stay home. We’ll watch with horror as anti-Asian racism grows from microaggressions to life-threatening attacks (and if you’re me — this will claw at your insides until you finally let yourself cry). On quick trips to get fresh air or buy necessities, we’ll eye each person walking past, constantly readjusting for six feet of distance.
And yet. We’ll discover the strength of human resilience. We’ll shout, sing, and do Zumba across balconies — and maybe even find romance. We’ll pick up new hobbies and dust off old passion projects. We’ll applaud the grit of our health care workers, as they go in day after day to face increasingly dire circumstances. Those quarantined with others will learn to cherish unprecedented time with families, roommates and partners. Those quarantined alone will find unprecedented comfort with their solitude. We’ll ignore our aching eyes to keep staring into screens, finding connection via Zoom happy hours, Houseparty hangouts, ridiculous TikToks and endless Instagram memes.
We’ll look at the news headlines constantly, holding our collective breath. From around the world, we’ll hope, wish and pray for the page refresh that brings the news we so desperately seek:
That it’s time for our new normal.
That we have finally made it to the other side.
