There’s a lot that can be said about the covid-19 pandemic, but not that it isn’t making us reevaluate much of our daily lives. Some countries are still in hard lockdowns, other countries are slowly trying to restart normal life and get past this entire episode as quickly as possible.
It’s not hard to imagine that this pandemic has scared us somehow. It made our society realise that we don’t have the answer to everything and there are things that can catch us unawares. There might even be some aspects of life that can’t or won’t go back to the way things were before corona.
While it’s hard to try and account for all the ways in which our lives could change once this all blows over, here’s a few aspects of our lives that might never be the same again – for better or for worse.
The Way We Work
With pretty much the entire world suddenly working from home, there’s
going to be a huge earthquake in the way we manage our jobs. It seems
odd to imagine that after all the effort that has gone into making
sure people can work from home, we’d go back to sitting at our
fixed desk in a dreary office building 5 days a week. Work will
probably be more flexible after this.µ
The Way We Interact
With social distancing becoming the norm and many countries
advocating the use of mouth masks, many cultures will probably find
it difficult or even impossible to go back to the way we interacted
socially before. No longer will we greet strangers in close proximity
or give out random hugs and handshakes to people we barely know or
haven’t seen in a while.
The Way We Move Around
People are being asked to stay inside as much as possible, meaning
we’re discovering things in our own neighbourhoods. No longer do we
feel the need to drive for hours on end to find a nice walking route,
since by now pretty much everyone has walked and rode their bikes
through their neighbourhood more times than they can remember. Once
we go back to being able to move freely, many people will probably
think twice before assuming they need to use the car to enjoy the
outdoors.
The Way We Spend Leisure Time
We’ve all had ample time on our hands in these last few weeks, so
many people have taken that time to do something positive and find a
new hobby. Once corona ends, we might still enjoy that particular
activity and put more value in our leisure time. It might even be
something radically different from what we did before!
The Way We Treat Teachers
Let’s be honest, we’ve all spent several weeks in a row with our
children now. They’re annoying, aren’t they? They take up so much
energy. They’re all over the place, they won’t let you work
properly, it feels like they’re just an extra job being pushed on
your plate, … So maybe once corona blows over, we’ll be more
thankful for the work our teachers do every day so we won’t have
to.
The Way We Shop
And if we’re being entirely honest: we all know that going straight
for the toilet paper isle is silly, right? Maybe once the pandemic
blows over, we’ll be smart enough to always have a reasonable stock
of toilet paper so we don’t need to empty out the store on day one
of a lockdown.
The Way We Treat Sick People
I mean, I doubt anyone is going to risk putting their sick child with
the grandparents for the day after this. While this was pretty much
the norm before, I can hardly imagine doing it after corona blows
over. Parents should take care of their sick children, not the
parents’ parents.
The Way We Treat Nurses
These people have been risking their lives on a daily basis so we can all go back to our normal lives as soon as possible. I can only sincerely hope taht once this all blows over, we finally treat these people with the respect they deserve. Also, give them a raise.
