THE NEW NORMAL

THE NEW NORMAL by Veronika Morozova and Anna Luīze Rezevska Coronavirus resembles that one annoying person who keeps following you around: you don’t like him, but you also don’t know how to get rid of him. It goes further – since you can’t do anything about him, you try to avoid him by changing your schedule and not going to places you meet him anymore. Because of that, everything around you changes, and you just wait for that annoying friend to forget about you or go annoy someone else. This is something that we all are experiencing now – we’re on lockdown, avoiding human contact, and waiting for the virus to go away. Hence, we have adjusted to that lifestyle somehow. The thing that bothers us a lot is that it’s been so long that we start forgetting how life was like before the lockdown was a thing. We have gotten used to the so-called “new normal”, but if you think about it, it would have been so weird to have the same stuff going on if everything were the same as it has been before. This year has been the best for conspiracy theories. Every second person doesn’t believe in facts, and more and more people think that they are being controlled by the government. It’s funny how easy you can spot conspiracy theories’ believers – they either don’t wear masks at all or wear them incorrectly, as if letting everybody know that they are “protesting”. The only thing they probably haven’t accounted for is the fact that the government already has all possible information about them, including bank accounts, family status, and so on. We are not excited about upcoming events or concerts because they all will get canceled or rescheduled anyway. Booking a flight, or even traveling anywhere except for your home country, is insane now. Hotels are now more popular by locals than foreigners, and locals sometimes stay at hotels either for one night (just to change the environment) or for 14 days straight. What changes will return back to the “old normal”? It’s weird and uncanny that you can’t go to restaurants, and the most you can get out of going to a cafe is getting a coffee-to-go. And what about queues in shops that are now twice as long but with much fewer people actually waiting in them? The weirdest of all – if you get closer than 2m to someone, you’ll get a very unfriendly look (I’ve also heard that there was one granny who got beaten up because of standing too close to another man). It’s Christmas time, and kids this year won’t be able to crawl on Santa’s lap in some mall and ask for a new iPhone. At least, now parents have an excuse about why they got their wished for - their letter got stuck in the mail because everything now is so slow. child something other than what they Streets are empty, there are no tourists, and there is no “Christmas shopping” during the weekend anymore. The best you can buy is a hand sanitizer or a bar of soap

It’s stupid that you can sometimes find yourself for your friends, who you won’t even be able to meet watching a TV show or a movie and start wondering in person. Even more, the “let’s meet up!” phrase is now why those people are not socially distancing and why usually implied as “let’s schedule a Zoom meeting! No, they aren’t wearing masks. I think that’s the moment not Google Meet, it’s lagging. If it’s not Zoom, then I’m when you realize that you’ve spent too much time not coming.” sitting at home. What is dating like in quarantine? You can meet up,

And yes, we sit at home. Every day. We don’t go but at what cost? You have to socially distance, you outside or do it very rarely. We spend the majority of can’t go anywhere except for outside, and the most our days in pajamas, and when we go somewhere, we powwpular compliment now is “you have beautiful rarely use public transport because now it’s frowned eyes” because pretty much the rest of your face is upon!!! Could you imagine the government telling you covered with a mask. It’s funny that single people are to reconsider going somewhere by public transport now less concerned with their date having STDs than and choose a car instead, or go on foot? For the first Covid-19. time ever, the most sustainable way of transportation (except for walking) is not recommended. Actually, if you think about it, the only people who are always on the go are food delivery guys. There is absolutely no surprise why 2020 can be used as a “yolo” equivalent. We’ve already learned that anything can happen this year.

10 / THE INSIDER

What changes are here to stay?

It is quite logical that we have, to some extent, normalized some of the changes brought upon by the pandemic and the restrictions, as humans are creatures of habit. A commonly thrown around approximation, describing the time it takes to form or change a habit, is three weeks. As of December 2020, I can quite confidently estimate that our lifestyle has been subject to a major public health issue for more than three weeks. New habits have been formed; we have adapted to various inconveniences, like not being able to buy something to take the edge off on a Sunday or wearing a mask in public places for the sake of lessening the spread of the virus. On one hand, this means that most of us are collaborating to reach a common objective. Our decisions and actions are essentially motivated by the idea of what would be optimal not only for oneself but also for everyone else. It could be possible that this period of human solidarity shows us how effective global collaboration can be, which is an important conclusion when thinking about other issues of various scales. Experiencing the pandemic has changed our sense of what is normal or familiar, as well as highlighted some large-scale causality, enabling us to think in a different manner. Our degree of individualism might decrease, as the pandemic affects everyone, demands cooperation, and the actions of some very clearly affect others. A quite effective analogy with climate change can be drawn, a key difference being that the latter is a long-term crisis where the effects felt are not that immediate. With a disease, the problem is more straight-forward. There is some hope that this change in the way of thinking may become habitual, leading to some positive long-term effects on the mentality of at least a fraction of people. With this crisis we have also seen that we can survive without many things deemed necessary before, which means a potential decrease in the trend of consumerism even after the pandemic will have been mitigated. Reality has shown that critical situations, like sickness and unemployment, can be and often are unexpected. As so many are affected, it is likely that more people will better understand the importance of an emergency fund and personal finance in general. Some positive outcomes have stemmed from the need to change our lifestyles. A number of problems and inconveniences caused by the pandemic have been resolved via technology. The crisis facilitated rapid implementation of online or remote solutions in various fields. Options, like working from home, online meetings, and online education, had to be optimized as an alternative to the pre-corona way of life. And there are some benefits to this increased utilization of technology that people are taking a note of. Many businesses do not have to rent a large office space if the employees are able to work from home, and this opportunity to save is a big enough incentive to consider a permanent form of at least partially remote work. Employees enjoy the perk of saving the time previously spent on transit, as well as have the opportunity to cook and eat at home, which is often both healthier and cheaper than going out to eat. Given that the time to adapt to this way of life has been long enough for it to feel familiar, it is very likely that remote work will become a more popular option than it was before the pandemic. The quality of online education has also improved, therefore, it might become a more accepted and widespread option of schooling due to additional benefits like availability. There is another bonus — now that we know how to use technology more effectively, more of us will utilize it.

We can also observe an increase in the usage of technology in entertainment. This is likely here to stay due to its convenience. For example, streaming platforms (like Netflix), experienced a boom in popularity due to our need to be entertained while isolated. Here the formation of habits is relevant once again — the more Netflix series you watch, the easier it gets to continue spending your time that way, as it feels familiar. It is very convenient because not much effort has to be put in to gain some pleasure from the activity. And psychologically that is very tempting. Another comfort, the popularity of which will likely never go back down to the pre-pandemic level, is online shopping. Some effects related to our health-consciousness are likely to stay at least some time after we will have put an end to the pandemic as well. For example, the normalization of wearing a face mask when one is sick and general sanitation-mindedness, are some of the outcomes that will have a positive impact on public health. At least for a while… Or until people forget how effective it is.

There are also consequences of this global challenge, like increased political turbulence and polarizing segregation, which are less uplifting, but very real. And it is hard to predict what the outcomes of these turbulent times will be. Ultimately, the long-term impact depends on how we perceive the crisis, what we are willing to learn from it and how we adapt to the new normal.

11 / THE INSIDER