The New Normal — What Will Our World Be Like After Covid-19?

Are the changes we’ve made to reduce the spread of the virus temporary, or will they become a permanent part of our lives?

It’s a question a lot of people are asking.

Personally, I’m taking all this gloom and doom about living in a post-corona world with a lot of skepticism.

Most of us have been sequestered in our homes for over two months now.

We’ve become accustomed to working remotely, the kids have transitioned to online classes, and we’re binging on Netflix and other online streaming services. We’re doing it out of necessity — to reduce our exposure to the coronavirus — and as a result, we’re living our lives in a very different way than what we experienced just three months ago.

But what are things going to be like after the threat of the virus is over and the current pandemic has been resigned to history? Will some of these changes become permanent? And if so, which ones?

It seems like anyone with a blog , a podcast, or who writes for publication has jumped on the prediction bandwagon and wants to tell us what the new normal will be like — and not only for the next few months, or even through the rest of the year. Some are extending their predictions into the foreseeable future and presenting them not as possible outcomes, but as accurate representations of what we can expect.

Based on what I’m reading, many of the regular activities we’ve always thought of as a normal part of our lives are no longer going to be available to us.

It’s a sweeping generalization and, according to many of these armchair psychics, we’re never going back to many of the behaviors and activities that we took for granted before the pandemic changed our lives.

Specifically, I’m talking about the death bell that’s being rung for public entertainment venues — places like movie theaters, concert halls, night clubs, bowling alleys, skating rinks, and all the spectator sporting events where thousands of people come together to watch professional and college sports.

And let’s not forget about cruising. According to many of these predictions, you might as well sink the entire fleet because no one who values their health is ever going to step foot on a cruise ship again.

I don’t know what kind of crystal ball these folks are using, but it must have some extra accessories and features that mine just flat missed out on having installed.

Admittedly, these targeted businesses and industries are the sources of high-density venues that have been most affected by the pandemic. And when I say affected, I mean they’ve been closed down — because of the potential to spread the virus.

But here’s the big question . . .

How do these modern-day prophets justify their predictions?

Their general rationale is based on the likelihood of the virus, or some derivation of it, returning in the fall, requiring these public venues to remain empty and unusable — or at least their capacity will be reduced to a point that profitability falls below the minimum necessary to keep the doors open.

But frankly, I have to take a contrarian viewpoint to these negative forecasts.

Certainly, it’s true the pandemic has required us to change our routines and the activities in which we participate. But to assert the idea these changes are going to become the new normal is taking a huge leap into a situation that still has yet to evolve — a situation that will, most likely, will resolve itself over time.

Let’s take a look at the most often-cited business and activities that have already received an obituary because of the virus.

The first is meetings. Since the pandemic, they’ve become virtual, using online platforms (like Zoom, for example) to bring people together for discussions and conferences.

But this idea isn’t new. Virtual meetings were taking place a decade ago, when the economy was in a recession, and business budgets made it financially unfeasible to assemble a group of people at the same location to listen to a live presentation. Using online platforms became a cost-saving measure.

What happened as soon as the economy turned and companies began making money again?

Personal meetings returned.

Seeing someone in person, talking with them face-to-face, is an integral and traditional part of establishing and maintaining rapport.

Employers know the value of bringing employees together within a controlled or structured environment, not the least of which is the boost to morale.

Personal meetings create a subtle, yet unified undercurrent that motivates and inspires, promoting the idea of working together to accomplish something important, with individuals recognizing their part in making a vital contribution.

So for the time being, as long as the risk of the virus is high or unpredictable, the trend toward virtual meetings will continue.

But in the long-term, it will not replace the benefits of in-person meetings. In time, face-to-face conferences, summits, and seminars will again become the preferred method of distributing information, training, new policy introduction, and whatever management wants to pass along to the rest of the troops.

Another industry that’s projected to undergo massive change is education.

Many smaller, less prestigious schools are predicted to fail financially. And those that remain — what I call cornerstone universities, such as MIT, Yale, Harvard, and their equivalents — are going to require a complete financial overhaul to remain competitive.

The reason?

The recent quarantine has required schools to deliver educational content exclusively via the internet, causing many to question the premium associated with classroom instruction. In turn, this has highlighted the exorbitant cost of attending a brick and mortar institution — as compared to completing an accredited online degree.

As a result, a lot more people are asking why they need to go into debt — taking out huge student loans to complete a traditional college degree — when a much cheaper online alternative is available.

The projected outcome is a mass exodus from conventional universities as students opt for a more economical method to pursue an education. However, the notion of switching from a campus centered education to an online program is not new.

I remember in the late 80's trying to find an accredited institution that offered online degrees. From the few that provided “at-a-distance learning” (the term used at that time), all were hybrid programs, still requiring a short residency requirement.

Today, students can choose from many different types of online degree programs, and they can do it without the need to show up in a physical classroom.

Yes, the coronavirus may have brought more attention to the economic inequities inherent in our educational system. But the movement to less expensive, alternatively-sourced degree programs did not originate from the pandemic. We’re simply seeing the acceleration of an existing process that was already well underway before the virus required schools to close their classrooms.

The next forecast has to do with entertainment.

Specifically, I’m talking about Netflix and other competitive streaming services offering on-demand programming.

Like the previous example, this isn’t something that just happened within the last two or three months. The growth of Netflix over the past five years indicates this to be an on-going trend.

More and more consumers are turning to subscription services offering entertainment and programming specifically targeted to a particular audience. And it’s in no small part due to the quality of broadcast television, an industry that continues to litter the airwaves with shows that are a generic hodge-podge of simplistic, predictable, superficial drivel.

Yes, I’ve heard the argument that instead of movie theaters we’re going to move toward subscription-based television, because we’ve discovered the convenience and variety of online streaming services.

But that doesn’t acknowledge why movie theaters exist in the first place.

When we go to a public venue — and this applies not only to theaters, but also to restaurants, sporting events, night clubs, and concerts — it’s because we’re looking for an experience.

We don’t go to a restaurant just to satisfy our hunger. We go to engage in a public activity that brings us pleasure — to be waited on, to enjoy the preparation and service, and to have someone else clean up the dishes.

But that’s not the most important reason.

We patronize public venues because we want to be among other people.

And even though we may not personally interact with them, the fact that we can see or hear them gives us a sense of assurance that everything‘s okay. It confirms our society is still on stable ground — and it’s safe to move freely about the cabin.

Call it a subconscious touchstone or a foundational part of enjoying an open and safe society. These venues validate our confidence in our culture, substantiating it as one in which we can function without fear or anxiety.

We could talk about other areas of our lives that, due to the pandemic, are being targeted as candidates for radical and permanent change. It’s a big list, including online shopping, air, train, and bus travel, carpooling, and of course, cruise ships.

But the bottom line is the same:

These negative projections are based on a snapshot in time that is already dated, completely ignoring the fact that many of the underlying factors contributing to the spread of the pandemic are already changing. And it’s these changes that will make a huge difference in the way we respond to future outbreaks, if and when they occur.

First, there’s the probability of having a working vaccine — of finding a cure in the very near future. These are not pie-in-the-sky possibilities. There are about a hundred companies currently working on developing a vaccine, and some of them are already showing the promise of reducing the severity of the symptoms as well as providing a degree of immunity.

Second, there’s the possibility of improving the country’s leadership, of electing officials who are better equipped, more intelligent, and have a better understanding of their responsibility to serve the people first, regardless of political affiliations or personal agendas. If we’d had effective leadership in the first place, there’s a good chance the virus would never have gained a foothold in this country.

And third, the divide we’ve seen in the medical community between the administrators of health services and the actual practice of providing care to those who need it is going to shrink, primarily from all the negative and embarrassing transparency.

The pandemic has exposed the medical’s community’s vulnerabilities in the form of ineffective supply chains and insufficient inventories of essential materials and equipment.

Most important, it revealed the very different priorities between front-line health care workers — who are trying to deliver medical services to those who need it — and an administrative bureaucracy that is mired in layers and layers of political and financial red tape.

The fact the pandemic brought these problems to the forefront means there’s a better chance of getting these shortfalls corrected. And if done correctly, we’re going to see the doctors and nurses who are treating the problem on a daily basis have a lot more input in directing resources and manpower in preparation for future outbreaks — making sure there are sufficient supplies for mass testing and early isolation and quarantine for those who require it.

It’s the combination of these factors — a working vaccine, Improved national management, and a more effective medical community — that will result in a better-executed, non-partisan response to future outbreaks, reducing and ultimately preventing the spread of contagious disease.

I’ll leave you with this:

Some would like us to believe the pandemic has left us with a situation that’s right out of some dystopian novel about a world in which the future is a shadowy wasteland of what-used-to-be.

But this completely ignores the probability of other influences, such as on-going research, advances in technology, and changes brought about by political and social motivations.

Yes, some industries are going to change, because they were already in the process of evolving. And as they progress, they will either flourish and grow or find it financially unfeasible to operate. But it won’t be exclusively because of the coronavirus.

Most if not all these businesses were already in transition — being influenced by social and economic pressure, cultural evolution, and technological revolution. The pandemic simply accelerated their outcome.

I suggest the next time you read or hear about how our lives in a post-corona world is going to be a dark specter of gloom and doom, stop for a moment, and realize the majority of unexpected change — especially of the magnitude created by a pandemic — typically gives birth to discoveries, advancements, and improvements in many different sectors of the economy and culture.

These are the influences that will eventually change our lives.

And they will change them for the better.

© 2020 Roger Reid. All Rights Reserved.

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Roger A. Reid, Ph.D. is the founder|host of Success Point 360 Podcast and author of Better Mondays: The New Rules for Creating Financial Success and Personal Freedom (While Working for the Man) and A certified NLP trainer with degrees in engineering and business, Roger offers tips and strategies for achieving higher levels of career success and personal fulfillment in the real world.