Post Covid-19 Predictions
Have you been dreaming of life when Covid-19 has less influence over your personal and professional life? Predictions suggest it won’t resemble what we left in early 2020. A new normal is being defined and there is one variable at the center of it all – the Internet.
It’s no secret Covid-19 continues to change the way we use and rely on the Internet, and the prevalence of digital technologies is unlikely to take immediate pause once public spaces begin to reopen. Until confidence in health safety is restored, families and organizations will continue leaning on virtual environments to reduce risk while maintaining connection and productivity.
Despite the clumsy and often ungraceful shift to virtual, many are now finding their Zoom groove and adapting like chameleons. Abandoning family gatherings because of the pandemic has been an emotional loss, but evacuating offices has not necessarily resulted in a sacrifice to employee productivity or accountability. Some employers have even questioned their hesitance to send employees home with laptops much earlier.
The virtual environment has afforded business continuity across some industries but based on recent brand equity studies it appears to be less effective at building or maintaining consumer engagement. Staying connected to an audience without personal interaction has required creative cyber courting, especially for consumer brands and industries like travel that are dependent on live experiences.
The work-from-home model that eliminated seating assignments, canceled daily commutes and downgraded dress codes is currently recalibrating our workplace priorities. Higher value is being assigned to Internet speed, reliability and access, regardless of employee role and rank, and office perks like free snacks and bonding retreats are all but suspended for the interim.
Big city living is also experiencing a transformation of sorts. Home buying in rural communities around business hubs like New York City has spiked, presumably because of lower living costs and the abundance of square footage. When Internet connectivity is more important than proximity to an office cubical, the ongoing urban-flight signals employers are buying into the longer-term work-from-home model.
With only half of the world’s population having access to the Internet because of infrastructure or economic limitations, there are clear implications to building a future more dependent on connectivity. Although America experiences less issues of access than most countries, the Covid-19 scramble to Internet dependence is setting the stage for further inequity and disenfranchisement in many communities and especially underdeveloped parts of the world.
Change is often slow, but the pandemic has forced progress at speeds not seen in a lifetime. From the urgent pivot to life online and the over-night adoption of digital technologies once reserved for the computer savvy, it suggests we’ve all taken a step towards the future and simultaneously helped the Internet take a seat at the head of the table.