Imagine it’s 2023, and the coronavirus has finally relaxed its grip on humanity.
By that time, how sticky do you think the “new normal” will be?
My guess is there will still be plenty of line-cutting: flights taken for in-person meetings, famous colleges attended because they’re famous, etc.
But we’ve also dragged everyone’s technological life forward by about five years in the past nine months. Zoom became a verb overnight; we were fatigued of it almost as fast. A friend in her fifties told me the other day that 2020 was the year she learned Google Docs and Slack.
Still, the tech everyone’s using now was all designed pre-Covid, and much of it wasn’t that good to begin with (looking at you, Google Docs).
With the antitrust drumbeat getting louder, and digital habits (and needs) getting stronger, it’s looking more likely by the day that we’ll have some exciting, effective new tools sooner than we think.
Colin Steele 