What Will the Post-Quarantine World Look Like?

As much of the country (and the world) is in the midst of self-quarantining, we’re all adjusting to the “new normal.”  It may have occurred to you that it might be awhile before your next professional haircut (unless you’re lucky enough to cohabitate with a barber or stylist) -- you’re either going to have to wait it out and learn to love the shaggy look or let your partner/spouse/parent/sibling embrace their inner-Edward Scissorhands. Still, whenever some resemblance of normal life resumes, it seems unlikely that people will eschew going to the barbershop/salon in favor of amateur home hair styling. The same, however, may not be said of some other institutional mainstays. While staying in for extended periods is enlightening us all about many things we may have taken for granted, it’s also illuminating the ways in which technology is making others seem redundant and even unnecessary. While it’s difficult to imagine technology finding a way to replace commercial aviation anytime soon, there are many other areas of life that might find the post-coronavirus world a different place than the one they left.

The most glaring example of redundancy in the age of coronavirus is the Cineplex. Movie theaters were already staring down the barrel of the gun Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services have been pointing at them for the last several years – but now, with people staying in for the foreseeable future, the death knell of the movie-going experience may have been dramatically accelerated.  Movies that were still in theaters last month are already being streamed on the internet, and there’s been speculation that movies that were due to be released in the coming weeks and months might jump directly to streaming services if the pandemic is still forcing theaters to remain closed into the spring and summer.  Why wouldn’t this continue after self-quarantining finally ends?  What do movie theaters offer the public that the comforts of home don’t at this point? With high-quality streaming capability and high definition TVs in almost every home, movie theaters only have inconvenience and overpriced snacks left to sell to consumers.

The entire media landscape could look very different when the coronavirus subsides.  If you’ve been watching more cable news than usual (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), you’ve probably noticed a number of hosts and contributors doing shows from makeshift home studios or video conferencing into programs via video messengers like Skype and Webex. Although you may occasionally notice a slight satellite delay in response time, the differences in the production quality and substance of the programs seems negligible, especially when compared to the time and money this maintaining this approach would save in the long run. Why would networks continue to pay for guests to travel to studio locations when they can Skype in from their living rooms? For that matter, do cable news shows even need studios in the first place? If Rachel Maddow can host five hours of television a week from her basement at home, what do you need all that camera equipment and expensive studio lights for?

Office culture could be the place where the effects of the coronavirus pandemic has the most lasting impact.  As millions of people (maybe billions!) shift to working from home full-time, companies and small businesses have had to adjust the way meetings and presentations are conducted.  Video-conferencing applications like Zoom are meeting those demands, and although you’ve probably seen humorous examples of people attending meetings in their underwear on the internet, Zoom’s stock price has still managed to climb while markets all over the world are sinking like stones.  The argument against people working from home en masse has always been the fear that productivity would falter, but if companies see their workforce can do their jobs from home just as well (or even almost as well), it’s hard not to see entire industries pocketing the money they’d save on property and facilities by letting their employees work remotely.

Since the advent of the Internet, human life has been slowly moving towards isolationism while not fully embracing it. Now that we have no choice but to accept being as isolated as possible, it’s easy to wonder whether we’ll come to find “the new normal” more palatable that we previously thought possible.  Work, news, entertainment and social engagement are all just a few keystrokes away – and now that we’re all finding out how true that its, we might not ever go back. Whenever we do get back to normal, we’ll check back in to see if any of these changes outlast the pandemic.