The Near Future of Human Behavior

Original Column: https://www.forbes.com.mx/author/luis-carlos/

According to Darwin, humans have a high capacity for adaptability to adverse situations, and after almost five months… 150 days… experiencing the Pandemic-Confinement-Recession impact, in addition to the vaccine, herd, and reactivation forecast; the majority have managed to realized (or resign) living a far-from-2019 existence, without a clear comeback, because as Doctor Fauci says, 'the mask came to stay until Covid-19 ceases to be a threat'. Acceptance + Adaptation = 2020.

And beyond therapists advice about how to live this Momentum, reality shows that lack of control in spread disease generates a chain effect with two massive consequences in the short/medium-term, psychologically speaking: the positioning of uncertainty as human 'core feeling,' and the detriment in the social skills of many, due to social distancing impositions.

Also, cultural collective manages to delegitimize COVID-19 impact, based on shared global patterns, which include those who affirm that the decease is not serious (or does not exist), others more concerned to understand who's conspiring behind, the ones who attach their destiny to religious or spiritual beliefs, and finally people that due to work or emotional needs 'throw themselves out of luck.'

Of course 'every crystal looks different' implying that conditions how a subject lived the pandemic, makes its evolution - mentally speaking - radically different, and that seen from behavioral sciences will depend on various factors such as number of people who coexist together, confinement space area, access to goods and services, technology appropriation, number of roles to be assumed, social interaction profile, contact with nature...

It isn't easy to generalize. However, habits derived from nowadays like inhouse lifestyles, socialization deficit, increase in screens usage, unemployment - overwork, etc .; after being acquired for more than 60 days or 220 hours evidence new patterns: the consequences of living under a relative threat of disease, amidst technologies that unite and multiply productivity, while the physical and mental distance grows. 

As always, and continuing Umberto Eco and his obsession with lists, the near future of human behavior can be review in ten characteristics.

Disorder Routine. With the blend of work and personal life at home, the routine with a focused space for everything disappears. People will have days with a to-do list, where exercising at 11 a.m. and management reports at 11 p.m. on a Sunday is normal. An increase in insomnia cases is expected.

Praise of Basics. Appreciate the small. Valuing things that were previously taken for granted will be part of the modus operandi, mostly related to a longing for the moments, spaces, and experiences of the past. Places for meeting and connecting with nature will have another value.

Focus on the Present. For many, the pandemic has meant stopping planning, either due to imposed restrictions, lack of income, or just fatigue... each day comes with realities and experiences and is unrepeatable. We will see people carry out everything that they 'had postponed' in their life.

Closing the Circle. Gradually, the lockdown effects become evident, and people decrease the number of participants in their social, family, and work circle. Relationships that transcend the virtual become essential, and the gregarious feeling arrives. Being friends with neighbors becomes the 'it' form of socialization.

Massification of Loneliness. With confinement, emotional isolation intensifies, generating two paths: on the one hand, many will find the best company within. Divorces are increasing. Also, those whose inability to handle loneliness intensifies... the famous 'love in COVID days.'

Permanent Paranoia. With the threat of a new pandemic, wars, natural disasters, shortages... together, with the mix between news and 'fake news,' will create a society that is always 'on the edge.' A new social division between 'believers' and 'skeptics' will open up another version of polarization.

Childhood Loss. As the days go by, children and adolescents lose the moments that will determine their personality and are replaced by virtuality, hygiene, and confinement. An entire generation with serious interaction difficulties and anxiety is predicted, which failed to have (and misses) the concept of 'being a child.'

Lockdown as Normal. With high-risk populations (children, the elderly, people with obesity, etc.), living locked up will become the new form of normality, where hopelessness of not leaving will go hand in hand with recursion to transform spaces. An increase in cases of agoraphobia is expected.

Lack of Privacy. Between the increase in the use of tracking tools, the reduced housing spaces in vulnerable populations (or mega-cities), and the uncertainty, having spaces and moments of privacy become small oases, which will almost be of high need, luxury, and desire.

Liquid Identities. Before the pandemic, relationships could be 'blocked' or 'eliminated' with a 'swipe.' this evolves towards identity, from apps for photographic alterations, to deepfake videos where you can impersonate another. Beyond gender, one day, you may be a 15-year-old girl, and a 50-year-old man the next.

For human behavior experts and psychiatrists, those who treat mental needs starts a hectic moment (also lucrative... telemedicine portals warn that their increase in demand for these services is at least 40%), as they prepare for a massive rise in cases of post-traumatic stress, in addition to the arrival for the first time of many who previously did not attend these specialists ('conventional' and 'alternative'), which will be crucial to have a much more existence positive under the new reality.

In the case of entrepreneurs and the business world, the strategy will be in power from a distance to support their workforce in the inevitable migration to these new behaviors, understand how much they affect business performance, and adapt. Although this has been the year of adaptations, so it does not seem like a grandiloquent challenge, and resilience is at its highest level.

Ps. With this column, I'm celebrating five years at Forbes. Although everything has changed since that day, there will be two facts that continue to endure over time and give me stability and constancy (values so rare today): The credibility, journalistic capacity, and trustworthy relationship of the publication with the business system of the region and its leaders. And my friendship with Mariano Menéndez. Thanks bro! For letting me participate in this exciting project.