Lessons From the Pandemic

COVID-19 has changed the world on how they used to perceive things. Before COVID, people never thought of a situation where they would be forced to stay in their homes or wear masks. The 1928 influenza flu was long gone and forgotten (Franchini et al., 2020). Businesses insure themselves against other certain risks such as fire and natural disasters, which are well known because they tend to happen most of the time. The pandemic altered life all around. It taught people different lessons and even new technologies that existed, but people preferred not to use them frequently has changed people’s perception. The pandemic taught people to appreciate technology because they were locked from accessing the food stores and clothes stores, but purchases were still made through online shopping. It also led people to understand that they can communicate over long distances and still connect with their families despite not traveling by plane to visit them. The pandemic changed humans’ social and economic aspects, impacting their future.

How COVID Altered My Views on Social Systems

The pandemic has not altered my view on the change of social systems in society. The reason is that social change is more transformative. Depending on different situations, human beings will adjust to make changes to fit the case. The change forces them to alter their behaviors and also their relations. The same happened during the pandemic. People had not anticipated it, but when they realized the virus was deadly and spread quickly, specific measures had to be implemented to contain the contagious disease. When making social changes, not every person finds it fit because they are affected significantly when the changes are oppressive despite being put in place for their good. People responded differently with the restrictions to prevent the pandemic’s spread and wearing masks. Some responded positively, while others where against it because they felt it infringed their rights.

In the social systems, society before COVID used to be more interactive because it was easy to socialize with people face-to-face (Shapoval et al., 2021). Communication via virtual communication systems existed before, but it was not more interactive; people preferred to talk because they could easily read expressions. It was also easier for presentation. COVID Has changed that; the new form of communication that people prefer now is through virtual systems to protect themselves and social distancing (Cleveland Clinic, 2021). The pandemic’s recent changes are expected to create a lasting impression on people in the future. In my view, COVID has not changed the social systems because they still existed before. Still, it has made people appreciate technology more and look for other alternatives that they can use to connect with their loved ones and also protect themselves against the pandemic. Through virtual communication, people can interact at a social and professional level; the social systems remain the same in society.

The Pandemic Altering My View About the Future

Changes in the social systems can be quite hard to implement because of the response from people. The pandemic is a lesson to the human race on how challenging implement social changes. The pandemic has altered my view about the future, that things may not go back to normality, and instead of people hoping the pandemic can be wiped out in the end, they should be prepared to live with it like the regular cold flu. My argument is that the COVID virus keeps changing its variant, becoming a threat to humans. COVID has changed me to believe that it is still necessary to follow the regulations set by the government to prevent its spread. Interacting with our loved ones might be a challenge because we must protect them from the pandemic. It is crucial to ensure that people continue to wear their masks and sanitize despite being vaccinated against the virus.

The pandemic has taught people how important family is, especially during the lockdown. People had to stay away from their friends and families, making interaction more challenging. In the future, I believe people will be more inclined towards spending time with their loved ones because the pandemic taught them how crucial it is to have memories with their loved ones because they might not have any chance to build those memories. During the lockdown period, many people started doing indoor activities; this can impact the future even after the pandemic because people developed new ideas within the houses that will help them stay healthy and take care of their mental stress.

The future seems bright, with more businesses opting to venture into a cashless business transaction because of the lessons from the pandemic (Powell, 2020). I never imagined the world completely transforming into a cashless economy because there was never the harm of using money in the first place. In the future, it will be difficult for some countries, especially the underdeveloped countries, to recover from the economic depression they expressed during the pandemic because they were severely affected. It will take time to restructure things and recover from the pandemic because most of their industries collapsed, affecting revenue generation. The pandemic had its negative and positive impacts because it taught the world to have an open mind and welcome different ideas against the pressures the world had to give them.

References

Cleveland Clinic. (2021). How the pandemic has changed our lives. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/heres-how-the-coronavirus-pandemic-has-changed-o

Franchini, A. F., Auxilia, F., Galimberti, P. M., Piga, M. A., Castaldi, S., & Porro, A. (2020). COVID 19 and Spanish flu pandemics: All it changes, nothing changes. Acta Bio Medica: Atenei Parmensis, 91(2), 245.

Powell A. (2020). Our post-pandemic world and what’s likely to hang round. Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/11/our-post-pandemic-world-and-whats-likely-to-hang-round/

Shapoval, V., Hägglund, P., Pizam, A., Abraham, V., Carlbäck, M., Nygren, T., & Smith, R. M. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic effects on the hospitality industry using social systems theory: A multi-country comparison. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 94, 102813.