How Do People Behave in Times of Corona?

This is a continuation of the Social Lens series: How Do People Behave in Times of Corona?

Coping with this virus affects people's lives deeply as it upends our whole social structure that we take for granted.

We have to adopt to this and we are stuck with a new situation in which we do not have any preconceived strategies. This can be confusing, frustrating and even scary making us all to different degrees anxious about life, society and ourselves.

Risk groups have to take this situation even more seriously as they have to try to avoid any contact with the disease. But it is this group that also faces the most challenges as they may not be able to cope with the many challenges so easily. In fact, it is exactly this group whose social dependence on other people is greatest, but at the same time they have to curtail their social bonds, making this situation much harder on their lives.

While the health aspect for young people is much more favorable, they still face the dilemma of joblessness when they may not have the luxury to go months without any income. Their salaries are now largely dependent on the state's willingness to compensate their citizens. But surely, this will be hardly enough in most cases.

Yet there is hope that this situation will improve over the next weeks with many countries now trying to get their economies back on track again. But, of course, there are many questions in this regard and it will probably take quite some time before things will get back to normal... But even if the many restrictions on social life will be eased, and if the economy makes a successful come back, we might end up in a "new normal" rather than the "old normal". And how does this new normal look like? And what will it mean for our lives and life in the future?