Berlin. There are scoffers who claim: If the coronavirus should ever be defeated, everything will be as it was before. Experts assess it differently, however.
The coronavirus taught us to keep our distance. For the Hamburg futurologist Horst Opaschowski, this will remain part of our lives. “Distance will be the new decency,” he says. Overall, interpersonal dealings will become more sensitive to distance, predicts Opaschowski and gives an example: Shaking hands at every opportunity loses its dominant meaning.
In addition to the distance, the mask is also an important tool in the fight against Corona. But what about it after the pandemic? For Matthias Horx, founder of the Zukunftsinstitut with locations in Frankfurt am Main and Vienna, this is clear: “It will hardly stay,” he says, explaining the culture of showing or covering one’s face. “In Asia that fits the cultural code, here it doesn’t.” There must be a recurring infection process for years before we get used to it in everyday life, explains Horx.
Futurologist Opaschowski sees the mask more as a new part of a “society of long life”. It says: “Without health awareness, almost everything is worth nothing.” The good life begins with compliance with health and hygiene rules. Anyone who has to allow too much proximity on the train, bus or plane, “prefers to wear a mask,” explains Opaschowski.
The home office
The orphaned open-plan office is also a symbol of the Corona crisis. Keeping your distance works best when you work alone in the home office. Will we work as before after the crisis? No, because there are already companies that allow their employees to decide where and when to work.
It shows “which companies have a constructive culture of trust and which have a culture of mistrust,” says futurologist Horx. He is certain that the “new world of work” (English: New Work) creates work and organizational structures “that lead away from the classic 9-to-5 culture of presence”.
Private and professional life continued to converge and grow together, explains Opaschowski. That makes a work-life balance more realistic. In Horx’s opinion, companies that have flexible offers for the interaction between work and private life will be successful.
Sport took a back seat
Since the beginning of the pandemic, many Germans have moved less – and gained weight. This is the result of a survey by the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Nutritional Medicine at the Technical University of Munich with the opinion research institute Forsa. Accordingly, around 40 percent of those surveyed have put on weight – an average of 5.6 kilograms. In addition, a good half (52 percent) move less.
One reason could be closed gyms and swimming pools. What remains is running or a trend sport: the hula hoop is just celebrating a comeback. Stand-up paddling also became a mass phenomenon in the Corona year. Hiking experienced a renaissance – especially among young people – which prompted Visit Berlin spokesman Christian Tänzler to say: “Hiking is the new clubbing.”
This is no wonder for futurologist Horx. “All nature sports are booming because we have to move out of the-in-the-apartment-and-staring-at-the-screen in the crisis,” he says. “The crisis has intensified the longing to experience nature, which can also be seen in the increased importance of the ecological.”
In the post-Corona period, he believes that flexible team sports and “spiritual” sports beyond competitive sports will be popular – such as yoga, jogging or hiking.
vacation in Germany
The coronavirus is changing our vacation. Arrivals and departures, for example, are more likely to be by car than by plane. This is confirmed by a survey by the auditing and consulting company PwC Germany. With around 68 percent, the car comes first as a means of transport. Aircraft follows in second place, with 35 percent considering a flight in 2021.
When it comes to travel destinations, Germany leads with 46 percent, ahead of other European countries (33 percent). Futurologist Opaschowski describes vacation as “the most popular form of happiness”. People want to experience that again after long deprivation. Even if they would have to travel differently to do so, says Opaschowski.
Colleague Horx explains that although there will still be a cheap and entertainment sector in the future, sustainable “Conscious Traveling” will grow significantly. Opaschowski does not see that travel could one day be completely over: “Mobility represents a primordial human need throughout human history.”
Digitization at school
The corona crisis hit the German education system like a hammer. Schoolchildren and students as “digital natives” have often known and used electronic devices at home since childhood. On the other hand, the educational institutions were put to a hard test, showing considerable gaps and weaknesses.
A study by the University of Göttingen, for example, shows that every second school does not offer WiFi for pupils. More than 2000 teachers at secondary level I and II were surveyed nationwide.
