Rona Superstar

The pandemic that changed the world forever, the shock of the century. Everyones talking about it, asking, wondering, and guessing all worried about what the hell is going on! For most people they have never seen anything like this in their lifetime, a world wide lock down. There are people dying, sick and becoming infected with the corona virus. With numbers of cases doubling over night and showing no signs of stopping, it’s no doubt that people are panicking. They have reason to panic, anything involving the health of our people is very concerning and should be taken seriously. According to worldometer, the total cases world wide is up to 3 million so far and still increasing everyday. With lives on the line everyday it is crucial that everyone limits their social contact as much as possible. This creating the world wide lock down. Almost every country with enough cases of the virus is on some version of a quarantine. Traveling is off limits in most places and everyone is ordered to STAY HOME. We are staying home all day long, not going out to do all the things we used to normally do and only going out for necessary activities. personal assumption, I think we can all agree this virus is a bit of a pain in the ass. Even if we are not sick ourselves or nobody close to us is affected, most people have come at this pandemic with a common annoyance.

Maybe it conflicted with your spring break trip, or your graduation, or even your wedding plans. Whatever it is that you had planned to do during this time, probably got disrupted and its frustrating! Before you start creating your “i need a haircut” sign and start rioting in the streets, start to take a look at the silver lining that the corona virus has had on the world.

In this article I’m going to touch on all the benefits and positives that have some from the world wide pandemic. There has been reports on all the silver linings in all sorts of factors such as the economy, the environment, the worlds values, and everyones physiological state. In this article we are going to dive into some of the positive factors that have come out of this corona virus madness.

As many of us already know the outbreak has led to a huge economic crash with businesses and industries suffering now more than ever. As time is money, the more and more days that pass in quarantine, the more money businesses are losing out on. The businesses that provide a physical service are suffering the most right now as these are probably going to be the last to open as they are putting their customers at high risk of obtaining the virus. Big corporations that have products produced in other parts of the world, such as china, are also suffering as many of them are having a hard time getting their products to their customers as transportation is very limited during this time. To put it shortly the less everyone is consuming the less money everyone is making, and a lot of people aren’t happy about this considering that making lots of money is very much valued in todays society. The more money you are making, the more productive you must be and the more productive you are, the more that makes you a valuable person. Right? These are the values the western world thrives on to try and produce the most productive people possible because as an end result they will produce more money.

As a result of these western values many business owners today are going through many physiological troubles such as depression, anxiety and stress due to the lack of feeling valued in their society. As most people are prone to do, they are looking at the negatives of this economic travesty as it is very easy to do so. Lots of business owners are feeling like throwing up their hands in the air, losing all hope for what could have been a great year to grow, expand, and overall make money for their business. As I can see how this would be very frustrating and a bit of a challenge to overcome, this is a time for big changes to be made by businesses.

Industries that have their production based in other countries far from them, are currently rethinking if moving their production closer to either their own country or a near by country would be a smart move for them in the long run. Not only would this be a good move for another potential pandemic in the future, but this would also help with saving the environment from the impact of transportation.

This would also help to give jobs and money to those in your country (or neighboring country) and grow your own economy more. Now take for example your business supply chain wasn’t broken and you can still send products to you customers. The trouble many of these businesses are seeing right now is a lack of consumption from their normal consumers. This is where we are seeing a shift in values for many people as we are starting to question if we really need to be spending, buying, and consuming as much as we used to, in order to feel whole and good. Thus, causing such a positive impact on the environment at the moment as factories are closed, transportation limited as well as consumption. Li Edelkoort has done an interview for Dezeen magazine and calls this “A quarantine of consumption” even. She also talks about how the coronavirus offers us “a blank page for a new beginning” and I believe this to be absolutely true. With industries rethinking their business plans keeping the environment in mind and their overall views on well being, productivity and money, the outcome will be interesting to see of what will become of the new values of the economy and the environment.

Physiological Values + World Values

We are in the midst of seeing how citizens and world leaders are responding to the crisis that is the coronavirus. Will our new behaviors, customs, and traditions start to change the world forever? Though these already vary from culture to culture, will there be a new way to go about living our everyday life’s? How will our morals and values change? From the research I’ve done about the behavioral changes I can predict there will be many changes in society about the value of life.

The conversation of societies morals and values is an interesting one. Now today as a form of politeness, in public it is very normal to move away from people as if they smell like they haven’t showered in weeks. Not to be rude of course, it’s simply a way of showing that you respect their space as they should yours. These small gestures are very quickly becoming a part of the new “normal”. Is this way of giving someone space and overall being isolated going to be a literal example of how life after the crisis will be? Will we have to get used to socially distancing ourselves and spending more time with ourselves? Will this make us realize the time we do get to spend with someone else is so valuable and not to be taken for granted. For many people already there have been reports of people finding new hobbies, building deeper connections with loved ones, and overall just doing the things people never found the time for in the past while in quarantine.

Are we coming to terms to what and who is really important? Perhaps there are some workaholics realizing that a strong relationship with their kids is more important than their already high paying job. Maybe someone is coming to terms with who they really are because they’re alone during quarantine and have now had the time to get to know themself. Or maybe theres someone finding out how to turn their hobby into a career. Whatever it is, if you had a good attitude and positivity, the quarantine could have just put you years ahead of where you already were at because you finally had the time.

Another behavioral shift I have seen become more and more important during this time is a sense of gratitude and selflessness. Reports of clapping at the window at a certain hour has been a way of showing our appreciation for the medical workers who have had the hardest time trying to save as many life’s as possible. It also gives a sense of community for those stuck at home, and is nice to see their neighbors home and going through the same thing you are. A feeling of “we are in this together” wether it be though social media or just in your apartment building, has taken the world by storm as a positive light at the end of this dark tunnel. Not

only are we recognizing how important medical care is but also those who are working jobs to help keep the world running as somewhat normal. It’s the grocery store workers risking coming to work everyday to provide food for their community. It’s the garbage truck driver making sure our cities don’t overflow with trash in the streets. It’s the people that don’t have the luxury to sleep in all day or teach themselves a second language during this time we need to be especially grateful for in this time. Without them our lives would be that much more complicated and almost impossible to live without. As good citizens we just need to do our job of washing our hands, using gloves and masks (that are strangely not provided to us by our government) to protect ourselves and limit contact with others as much as possible so that we don’t put these essential workers in danger.

All in all with behavioral changes already being made it’s safe to say there will be many moral changes in our everyday society about how we treat others and how we treat ourselves. The least of what this lockdown has taught us, is it not anything for granted, to become innovative and to think beyond yourself.