Changes the Pandemic brought us in 2021
As the year comes to a close, looking back at past events is like peering in to a time capsule. With many of our days filled with sanitizing and masking-up, it feels almost as if things have always been this way. But in fact, more changes were implemented this year than we might think.
One of the, perhaps, more impactful changes was working from home.
The pandemic pushed many companies to a complete shutdown and moved home offices to the forefront of working environments. At first, it may have seemed like a relief or maybe a nuisance but about a year later, one thing is clear, office life might never seem the same again.
And despite the sudden and rapid change in location, many workers hope to have the choice of returning or staying at home once the pandemic ends with some even working towards a flexible mix of both. With this new experimentation, businesses are recognizing the need for drastic redesigns but in the end, adjusting to the new ‘work from home age’ may be the easiest part for companies.
Of course, trapped inside our homes with only Netflix and snacks to comfort us in the middle of some extremely unprecedented times, many of us were worried more about our body weight than contracting a deadly virus. Suddenly, everyone was sharing their expert at-home workout routines or the secret formula to clean eating.
It should make sense, everyone trying to stay healthy in a time like this except for the fact that there’s nothing inherently healthy about diet culture. But the funny thing is that diet culture is only successful because it sets us up to fail so coming towards the end of this year, many learned what habits and trends to surely stay away from.
Moving forward, families turned away from online studies and urged for inschool returns. Both preand post-pandemic, studies, and more importantly young opinions, have concluded that remote learning simply cannot replace the classroom learning experience. The lack of personal interaction and engagement seems to impair learning of all ages. Still, for smaller periods of time, remote learning contributed to more self-reliance and time for unsupervised play and self-directed learning which proves to be healthy for children and vital for lifelong success.
Generally though, we’ve been stressed out and isolated for the past year and that’s had wide-ranging implications for how we’ve been dealing with a mental health crisis. Usage of virtual and text-based mental health services soared and some companies felt the need to employ measures to address employees’ mental health. Although mental health has always been put on the backburner, the pandemic laid it bare for all to see, offering opportunities for everyone to take a stand for what’s good for them. Unfortunately, communities became split in the midst of the pandemic and the changes it brought with it. Even among the class of workers who were at home, there were those who had stable internet access and a stable home environment and those who didn’t, those who lived in large condos or cramped apartments, all exposed to the judgement of their peers. Even early in the pandemic when Covid-19 testing was especially scarce, there was those who were wealthy or famous enough to access tests and those who couldn’t. Last year, the amount of households who could pay rent was significantly lowered and looking at it on a global scale, the disparities are even greater. Despite all the good and the bad, the pandemic certainly had some lasting effects on us. Some of which we might carry in to the New Year and some that we’ll be glad to leave behind. Regardless, the New Year will be an opportunity for us to improve things for ourselves and others around us and I’m sure many of us, while still following guidelines and maintaining safe protocols, won’t let the pandemic stop us.