No matter what happens, once the COVID-19 winds down—and it will—we’re going to be changed as people.
I keep returning in my head to my experience during Desert Storm. In January 1990, we were 43 miles from the border of Kuwait. The enemy was close enough that we could have been overrun. And 24X7 fear of that did terrible things to us.
People I thought I could trust? That was ripped away and I saw was underneath. Not everyone I had thought was a good person was. Then there was the unit screw-up who ended up finding something inside himself he didn’t know he had.
We’re seeing that here, too. Some people have the spirit to do good and are reaching out. Others…well, you’ve seen examples of extreme behavior, too.
But, like the soldiers coming out of the war, we’ll be changed too. So I have some predictions:
Cooking
There’s going to be a resurgence in learning to cook. Not the kind of classes I saw pre-virus. You know, those ones where a chef teaches you how to make his signature Italian meal.
No, we’re going to see classes on cooking basics, and possibly even how to shop.
Might also affect significantly affect the culture food magazines and TV shows have created.
Books/Movies/TV
I think we’re going to see stories finally veer away the call of the dark. We’ve been languishing here for too long, frankly.
It’ll probably push a lot of writers out, too. Some won’t know how to write a story that isn’t dark.
Hollywood’s going to be forced into change, as well. Not sure what direction that will go since the path they need to take won’t agree with them. Their market in the U.S. was in decline because they weren’t producing movies audiences wanted to flock to. So they focused on overseas—guess where? Something is going to change.
Productivity/Time Management
I’ve followed it for several years, mainly because of so much overwhelm that technology has created. Everyone said that computers would make it easier to do things…instead, it’s made everything more complicated.
Now people chase impossible goals, pushing to jam more and more into the finite resource of time. They try to get even more by multi-tasking.
The overwhelm from COVID-19 stopped that dead in its tracks. The impact will show people that trying to do so much isn’t healthy. Minimalism and simplicity were growing before COVID-19. They’ll gain momentum now.
What are your predictions?
Linda Maye Adams 