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TOP 5 myths about the post-coronavirus world
TOP 5 myths about the post-coronavirus world

Video: TOP 5 myths about the post-coronavirus world

Video: TOP 5 myths about the post-coronavirus world
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Anonim

"The world after the coronavirus pandemic will never be the same …" We think everyone has heard this phrase many times. But what is behind it and will we really start living in a new reality tomorrow? Valeria Repina, founder and creative director of the Repina Branding agency, believes that in reality the changes in the post-coronavirus world will be very minor.

In recent months, there have been many thoughts in the information space about how people's habits will change after the pandemic. However, most of these opinions are based on a momentary analysis of the situation and hasty conclusions. I want to analyze in detail 5 main forecasts in order to understand how we will live in reality and whether the world will change as much as we are told about it.

Myth number 1. Companies will completely switch to remote work

Representatives of some companies, after switching to remote work, said that the efficiency of their business not only did not suffer, but also reached a new level.

However, this medal has a downside. The period of a pandemic can be compared to the state of military mobilization. Employees are afraid of losing their jobs and leaving their homes. They are literally locked in their apartments, they have nothing left but work. This, for example, is evidenced by the data of the company NordVPN. According to their research, working from home while self-isolating led people to devote more time to it. In the US and Europe, employees added two to three hours to their workday. I think Russia is no exception. However, I believe that after the crisis is over, the euphoria of the owners of companies who have grown so fond of remote work will gradually pass.

As practice shows, only in some areas business is ready to constantly work with its teams outside of offices or coworking spaces. As an example, I can cite 37Signals, who created the Basecamp platform for remote work. Their entire team has been remote from the very beginning, and this is embedded in the DNA of their brand.

But such companies are rather isolated and work only in certain areas. Such an example a priori cannot be a sign of the future. Leaving the team at home, most business representatives will in the future face such problems as deteriorating team spirit, low motivation of employees and their professional degradation. This will lead to a retreat back to cozy, bright offices, where the right atmosphere is created. The trend will continue for the arrangement of workplaces (after all, it is so difficult to establish them at home), branding of interiors, and the creation of office infrastructure. In a word, there is a trend for everything that makes people want to come to work and spend time there.

Myth number 2. Shopping will completely go online

The growth of some online companies will indeed continue, but it will still be significantly lower than the current one. Now the business in the E-commerce segment has increased its capacities, but after the end of the pandemic, they will no longer be so in demand.

Now people use online tools that replace real life, but as soon as they have the opportunity to go to the market, choose fresh herbs with their own hands, dine at a restaurant with friends - do everything in reality, and not click on pictures, they will quickly forget about online and balance will come to the world.

Already now, you can trace these trends, paying attention to how rapidly the stock market is changing. For example, the company Zoom Video Communications Inc: its assets, as expected, took off during the pandemic, and now they have begun to fall. Already on May 27, the value of shares of the Zoom video service, according to CNBC, fell by 8.5%. The same thing happened with Amazon and Netflix. Investors are turning their attention to other industries as the economy picks up. And this suggests that people are tired of endless online and artificial life.

Myth number 3. Entertainment format will change

It is believed that online gigs, online bars and other forms of online entertainment will take root in the lives of all people. Perhaps it will be so, but only partially. A recent article in The New York Times by Nelly Bowles talks about how active digital consumption in everyday life is becoming a sign of poverty. Another new reality is coming, where the category of luxury goods does not include gadgets and technologies, but live human communication.

Any activity that is reproduced on the screen becomes cheaper. At the same time, smartphones and tablets themselves are also getting cheaper.

"Electronics deployed in restaurants, airports, public spaces and institutions is generating significant savings in staff costs, cutting costs and anonymizing the service industry," Bowles said in an article.

However, data from brain studies of 11,000 schoolchildren who spend more than two hours near electronic devices have shown that their ability to reason is significantly reduced than that of their peers who are accustomed to communicating in person. The author also refers to a study that determined the dependence of the appearance of depressive states in adults on the frequency of working with digital devices.

Thus, live communication and live, rather than digital entertainment, become a sign of high status. The educated strata of society will more often arrange for themselves a digital detox, devote time to outdoor activities, travel, and communication with loved ones. Brands will make their customer experience more human.

Myth number 4. Online education will compete with live learning

This is a deep misconception, as online training is aimed at practicing specific skills, and, as a rule, these skills are associated with the digital environment. Online, you can get knowledge about the work of an SMM specialist, raise the level of English, but still not get a full-fledged education, that is, it is impossible to become a doctor, architect or musician.

And online education often becomes a kind of sedative pill, when a person inspires himself that he is really doing something. People often buy online courses just like that because they are inexpensive, but if you look at the percentage of people who complete such training, it is not very high. Back in peacetime, Harvard conducted a study that showed that, on average, only 6% of students who initially registered for their online courses receive a certificate.

I want to add that the surge in interest in all kinds of online courses is now associated with the fact that people have a lot of free time. Online education is in its niche and will never compete with live learning.

Myth number 5. Most companies will go digital

Forced work in remote mode forced companies to move as many processes as possible online and actively begin to implement automation. However, using digital tools does not equal digital transformation, and many companies will revert to old practices halfway through the journey.

In my opinion, the importance and benefit of the crisis lies not in the transition to the digital plane, but in the recovery of the market and the economy. Those companies will survive that are ready to change, build brands with a human face and develop relationships with their customers, rebuild the product and offer the market what is relevant today. Those who, before the crisis, had problems with the organization, with setting up processes, will simply disappear from the face of the earth.

By the way, last year the digital literacy index of Russian citizens was measured. So, it fell by 14.7%. This means that we are still very far from the complete digital transformation of the economy, and, first of all, society itself is not ready for it. For most, it takes much longer to fully transition online, to digitalization, and there is nothing wrong with that.

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