Reader Submission
The coronavirus has now run rampant over the world. People are locked down or in states of social distancing to avoid contracting it. During this time, people and businesses have had to adjust to the new world around them. Parents are stuck working from home with the kids running around, instead of being at school and restaurants that are normally open for sit-down services are now offering delivery.
How many things have we had to adjust during the virus that you believe will still stick around after it is over and the world is back to normal? Thailand was already very reliant on delivery drivers for food before the pandemic began as it is a tourism-driven city. Most expats that I know either eat some form of Thai food, or they cook at home. More of them have started using services like Grab and Food Panda for at least a meal or two out of the day.
Other delivery services have had to step up their games to ensure people have access to necessary items such as food and groceries. When you look at the whole of the population, not many people were doing delivery supermarket orders prior to this all beginning. Now people feel safer having a truck pop by every three days with their groceries than actually taking a trip to the store. Will supermarket delivery continue to be popular post-corona?
What about the millions of employers around the world, Thailand included, that have realized that their employees can perform their duties just as efficiently from home? Have some businesses realized that they really don’t need their costly office spaces when their employees can just report in daily from their house? I spoke with a lady in California just this morning who said her company was already looking at making their work-from-home a permanent situation.
Parents and kids have had to learn how to cooperate and get along, or at least tolerate each other through all of this. With the schools closed, parents have also had to either let their kids run wild as though this is a vacation, or they have stepped in and assumed the role of “Teacher” and are making the kids study while they are home. Will more mothers and fathers realize that spending time with their kids and being involved in their education is important once more? Or will things go right back to the way they were prior to the virus?
Almost everybody is on a hand-sanitizer and mask craze (often because of the laws of your country) but do you think it will become a normal thing to see people actually worrying about germs and bacteria? Will latex gloves and rubber masks be used for more than just medical personnel for the long-term? Or permanently?
A lot has changed over the last month to a month and a half. Lives have been upended, small businesses are struggling and may end up having to shut down for good and people only have real contact with the people that live with them. Will the virus make us all more anti-social than we already were?
These are all just some things I was thinking about this morning and was curious to know if others had thought about it at all. What new life habits will we adopt as “normal” when this is all over? Think about it.
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