The year 2020 brought changes to the world, people had to adapt to the new reality because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The freedom to gather friends, visit parents, go to the beach, go out at night was interrupted. Offices were closed, restaurants were closed and people had to isolate themselves at home. Birthdays started to be celebrated at a distance, shows started to be watched online and other things that were normal before became dangerous. All this because of a virus that nobody knew about. At the beginning of the quarantine, people sang in the windows, they cooked, but with the passing of time, the interaction started to be missed and people started to think too much about life, habits and other things that before were not seen as important.
Besides isolation, some habits needed to be changed, people had to learn to keep their distance from each other, clean their hands almost always and wear masks when leaving home and this became known as the new normal. In this new normal, hugs are scarce, family gatherings stopped happening as we were used to and we had to adapt and find ways to keep in touch with who we love and to work. For this, technology is a very important tool to get together in a “healthy” way, without offering risk to us and to our neighbor. Before the pandemic, many people complained that technology separated families and decreased contact, but after the pandemic the point of view changed, because technology became the only way to maintain contact and continue routine activities.
However, the pandemic revealed another point, the importance of caring for the mind. Since isolation began, many people have developed psychological problems such as depression or anxiety to stay at home with their routines totally changed, people can see the importance of the arts, for example, to help “disconnect” a little from reality for the good of our mental health. We are always bombarded with bad news and if we focus only on that, our mind ends up getting sick and a sick mind can bring diseases to the whole body.
In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to society and everything indicates that the changes will continue in the habits of humanity. Habits like participating in online meetings, cleaning food and packaging, changing clothes when you get home, cleaning your hands before eating, touching your eyes and mouth tend to continue in our culture after the pandemic, because this moment marked our society in a historical way, an example of this is the increased use of technology for routine activities, which brought agility, ease and also economy to develop some activities. Another important point is the valorization of moments, people started to value more the moments with family and friends, because these were scarce during the quarantine. Currently, some activities are being released and the isolation is decreasing due to this, but it is very important to keep the habits learned during the quarantine in our routine after the isolation to prevent this or other diseases from spreading. The new normal must be a reality for everyone, everywhere, not just a theory.
