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How coronavirus will change human habits

Anatori Sealife Comments 0 17th March 2020
How coronavirus will change human habits. A healthy intestine is associated with a strong immune system

/Coronavirus will change human habits./Sociopathy worldwide intensifies regardless of the virus outbreak. It is the desire for the “atomic nature of life” for an autonomous existence to break a traditional family. The epidemic only stimulates these trends slightly. Sociologist Alexei Firsov stated that. According to him, the lifestyle in many countries due to the virus will change, but still not dramatically.

The Czech government banned all foreigners from entering the republic, except residence permit holders, from March 16. At the same time, the prohibition on leaving the country applies to Czech citizens. Recall that the Italian government introduced similar measures earlier. Italians can still leave the country, but they must present a document about the purpose of their trip (for example, an urgent trip) to the border guards.

Border Control and Coronavirus

Slovakia, Austria (permanently closing the border with Italy), Estonia, and Norway restored border control. The Schengen countries, recently proud of the transparency of their internal walls, are rapidly fencing off each other, as in medieval times.

Meanwhile, in Russia, top officials still find reasons for optimism amid a global epidemic. The head of the Ministry of Communications, Maksut Shadaev, said on the eve that Coronavirus is a “window of opportunity” for developing services related to distance education and health care for our country. Russia is ready to transfer public administration, business and social systems online. For example, the TASS minister quotes all the technological resources needed to move meetings of government bodies online.

How wide can the state and all our general activities go online? Experts are already predicting how a pandemic will change the way of life worldwide. Thus, political scientist Dmitry Drobnitsky predicted that the attitude to migration would radically change. He says: “When students will be asked what ended globalization in the 1920s in about thirty years, the answer to the offset will be: COVID-19.

Fourth industrial revolution

Political analyst Marat Bashirov, in his Telegram channel, predicts a redistribution of the foundations of the global economy. It recalls that the fourth industrial revolution has already begun globally, an essential feature of excluding a man from decision-making. These processes could cause social unrest, but political scientists believe people will give up what was previously dear to them in a panic. They will give up their rights and agree to restrict movement and consumption, Bashirov is sure.

Interview with Alexey Firsov about coronavirus

In an interview with the newspaper LOOK, the head of the Platform Social Design Center, Alexey Firsov, discusses how the way of life of the planet’s inhabitants will change after a global blow inflicted by the Coronavirus.

LOOK: Alexey Vladimirovich, the head of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, believes that the Coronavirus has opened a “window of opportunity” for digitalizing government, business and the social sphere for distance education and healthcare. In your opinion, to what extent will such hopes come true?

Alexey Firsov: To open the “window of opportunity”, we had to wait for the Coronavirus. The question itself is curious. But, I believe the virus will have a stimulating effect. If you try to find something positive, the coronavirus outbreak has begun to “cut off excess entities.” The enormous number of “events”, that is, events of various kinds that have been carried out by humankind in recent years, arising from an excess of resources and time, from the need to channel the activity of overgrown company management somehow.

Now, many things may not happen, including, for example, the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. But this will not seriously change anything. As we lived without these forums, we will live.

The human mind is conservative.

As for universal digitalization, it is unlikely to remove the need for human interaction altogether. We studied whether online meetings and conferences can completely supplant offline meetings. No, this is not happening. People need a sense of presence. Many points are noticeable at the micro-level and slip away in the online format. It is a matter of trust and more flexible management of working time. Then, the human mind is conservative and adapts to specific forms. It needs triggers for change.

If there weren’t a coronavirus, we would continue carrying out many everyday actions, partly already meaningless – those that have long been taking time to transfer to digital platforms.

Any crisis stimulates processes that are already ripe in society.

Coronavirus may change the structure of life.

LOOK: That is, will the Coronavirus still change life structure? Would it come to the point that humanity will transfer almost all of its activity to the Network, and people will have live communication only with close relatives? For example, will only courier robots deliver food soon?

Alexey Firsov: Food delivery home is a reasonably acceptable practice. But a lot of people usually go to the shops. And people will still go to the store. The virus stimulates some societies to use digital platforms to order products. Probably, then, it will become a habit for them. The same will happen with online meetings and other elements of our lives.

But a virus alone is not enough to create long-term patterns of behaviour. Coronavirus and the associated panic will pass sooner or later, a vaccine will appear, and immunity will develop. Humanity has a short historical memory. And it is getting faster as the rate of change grows.

Sociopathy

Therefore, it will not be such that all people go into Sociopathy and clog their homes for a long time. In Italy, where I recently returned from, two hundred people die per day, and almost a curfew operates. Cities live in the afternoon, and people communicate. Until the last moment, people sit in bars and cafes as usual.

For some stressful periods, human behaviour will change. We can go into self-isolation but then back to a healthy balance.

It is another matter that the tendency of sociophobia in the world intensifies regardless of the virus. The use of online services is also expanding. Generally speaking, this tendency toward the “atomic nature of life” is a desire for an autonomous existence. The collapse of the traditional family also fits here. Again, the epidemic only stimulates these trends slightly.

The same goes for expanding the power of artificial intelligence. Yes, we trust more and more robots. But we cannot say we will wake up in a new world in two months. There is only one direction in which the world is moving.

What about globalization?

LOOK: Is it true that Coronavirus will “kill” globalization?

Alexey Firsov: We have seen new barriers to globalization in recent years. There was a surge of interest in local brands and a return to traditional cultures in life localization. Also, it is peculiar to us and the USA, Great Britain, Austria, and Germany. The virus stimulates the recovery of the concept of boundaries.

We can say that it has now got a “citizenship”: the outbreak is associated with China, Iran, and Italy – although it is clear that the disease zone does not pass strictly along the borders of Italy itself. The memory that barriers require closure came earlier, but an outbreak of the virus also accelerated this process.

The balance of power in the global economy

LOOK: Will the virus change the balance of power in the global economy? Will China cease to be a global factory? Indeed, other countries are now afraid to depend too much on Chinese production.

Alexey Firsov: Unless the epidemic took on the medieval “black death” scale when a quarter of the European population died out of the plague, there would not be a quick change in the alignment. China is now quickly recovering if, of course, we believe their official statistics. In Wuhan, as you know, most infectious cases have already been closed. Thanks to the mobilization model of society, which Europe does not have, China effectively copes with the crisis.

Another thing is that China is slowly losing the status of a global factory anyway. Production goes to India, Vietnam, and other countries with cheaper labour. Investors’ flow to more competitive hands, where conditions are more profitable, is natural. But China, with its sturdy material base, is a player in the long term. It is unlikely that something will seriously undermine its position.