Silence consumes the streets, the sound of school bells has yet to be heard, while closed signs hang off the glass window of nearly all local stores.
To fight off the invisible enemy, we were told to be invisible ourselves, proceeding with the standard 6 feet social distancing regulation, and simply staying home for extra precautionary measures. Mother Nature unleashes havoc, while Father Time has put the world on pause—and if there is one word to describe the troubles of now, it would be traumatic.
The government has long suffered from the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome, as they had initially brushed off the threat of a pandemic despite having heard of it, which had instantly struck down standard productivity and caused the death of thousands.
Our current situation now exceeds the animosity of the September 11 travesty, and there is a long history of policy changes following major occurrences (like how the 9/11 attack was the foundation for creating the Homeland Department of Security).
So chances are that there will be major changes in the lives of Americans and everyone else widespread, not just behavior-wise, but on government regulations too—even after the virus is restrained and under control.
The trajectory of COVID-19 alone has encouraged both the people and the government to make innovations that will assure the country’s tracks along the road—and this will certainly leave a lasting impact post-pandemic. So, it is likely that the world will take stronger initiatives and constitute international pandemic plans to prepare for future outbreaks, ensuring that the cycle of status quo will not repeat.
For one, illness and shutdowns are forcing businesses to function in new ways. More people are working from home and on their computers. As a result, companies are making real-time decisions. They are catching up with the technological standards of this century, by developing system resilience faster than ever before.
Employees will be more resistant when going out to work, as they have adapted to the comfortable lifestyle of working in the security of their homes via technology. After the virus passes, people will live with a quarantine state of mind, where even the tiniest actions, such as eating outside, having physical intimacy, or even getting your nails done, will seem treacherous.
Plus, with the increasingly less traffic, markets and retails had gradually been going downhill and bankrupt long before the coronavirus took over. Once a global health crisis did transpire, however, it had done no justice to retails, only accelerating the downfall in the process.
A vast majority of the population are relatively unwilling to step foot outside—particularly in areas that are likely to be populated and crowded, where germs travel the swiftest.
What’s more is that an average of 66 days is all it takes to naturalize new behavior, according to a 2009 study done by the European Journal of Social Psychology. It has been roughly four months since the coronavirus has taken over, drastically changing the way consumers make purchases just weeks into state shutdowns. And now, these people might not relapse back into old habits.
Online shopping and deliveries have synchronically become the new normal in America, especially with the ongoing trend of panic-buying and supply hoarding. In return, Amazon grew increasingly powerful amid the pandemic, and it is now one of the few retailers that experienced exponential growth despite the hazardous circumstances.
Without a doubt, mobile gadgets are taking over the world—and it is no exception in the academic sector. Sure, computers and phones have commonly been used long before shutdowns, but the importance of technology, for the sake of learning, has never been emphasized as repetitively the way it is now.
Out of them all, the impact that COVID-19 will leave on education is the best in this scope. The pandemic proved that students are capable of continuing school at home virtually, following the disruption of on-campus learning.
From working at home to shopping at home, and even learning at home, the coronavirus primarily altered the world on a digital scale. There is a high possibility that the days taken off from school due to hurricanes, will not be so uneventful during the years to come.
If the circumstances serve ideal, then online learning could just become the go-to method in the future. And as communities get inventive on solidifying social distancing standards, people can now do more with less effort with the help of technology.
Old habits may die hard, but new habits can last for ages—and this pandemic could just be the start of a whole set of changes.
