Journal of Global Resources
Volume 6 (01a)https://doi.org/10.46587/JGR.2020.v06si01.001

Special Issue

June 2020
Page 01-09
ISSN: 2455-2445 (Online)

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CORONAVIRUS: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW END?
Daniel Briggs
Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, European University, Madrid, Spain
Email: daniel.briggs@universidadeuropea.es
Abstract: This short article uses data gathered from an online survey which 950 respondents
completed from 58 different countries across the world. Respondents were asked about 1) theirviews of coronavirus, 2) the lockdown and social distancing, 3) their perceptions of media andgovernment and 4) the future. The results of this paper draw on section 4 of the survey to discuss
participants' views on what the coronavirus outbreak may mean for humanity in the future.
Key words: Coronavirus, Survey, Future, Change, Society.
Introduction: The advent of Coronavirus
In the West, people live in their own consumer bubble. They work only to spend and aspire to want
what is in the shops and look for moments to indulge, and live our ‘personal dreams’ throughconsumption. This is how we ‘enjoyed’ our lives; this was how we spent our time up until a few
months ago. Suddenly, the fast-paced almost invincible world which loved so dearly economic
expansion and profit, ground almost immediately to a standstill. Having learnt nothing from 2008,
the markets plummeted. All the news coverage related to Brexit started to dissipate. There was anew ‘threat’ supposedly coming to Europe. It would suddenly hit us they told us but we were toobusy enjoying our liberal freedoms in commercial centres to worry about it. Then the virus hit us
and whole countries locked down and sent their citizens home: we were at the mercy of the media
unable to make sense of the ‘real’ and the ‘fake’, all the while absorbing contradictory information
about how the virus and its effects. We became frustrated and anxious.
In a western culture dominated by advertising and mass media, we are relentlessly
influenced to discard collective identities and exclusively pursue individuality through the symbols
presented to us by the world of consumption. This inevitably leaves our ‘individuality’ anxious,
incomplete, and, ultimately, a myth that reflects our growing distance from reality and oursubmersion in a commodified hyper-reality that has disrupted and displaced all collective forms
and mutual interests. These comprehensive changes to everyday social experience play asignificant role in the gradual transformation of human subjectivity into one that prefers thesurrogate and hyperreal world of consumer goods over a confrontation with what is real andactually happening in society. What I am saying is that the role of consumerism in our lives
prevents us from overcoming our primal fears about grave problems in the world and our own
mortality. Therefore, this intensifies rather than transcends the emotional need for a coherent orderof symbols, which can be met temporarily by Instagram and Netflix…but when that mask (literally)slips, reality’s traumas multiply and bite hard. Will this fracture result in our total undoing? Could
this be the jolt the social order needs to find a more collective moral pathway forward? Or is it atemporary glitch in this system of plastic entertainment? How can society change in the face of thisnew ‘threat’? Can we pull together, can the social system change? A YouGov (2020) poll of 4,343
participants found that only 9 percent (n=341) in their study said that they would like to see ‘life go
back to normal’ meaning that a majority wanted a different structure to society. While to date, over
250,000 people have died as a result of the virus, the participants in the study clearly saw benefits
to the coronavirus. Over half (51 percent, n=2,214) appreciated the cleaner air while 27percent
1(1,162) said that they had noticed more wildlife in their local area. For over a third (40 percent,n=1720), the experience of lockdown because of the virus had a sense of community and 39
percent (1,693) indicated that, as a consequence, they had been in contact more with family andfriends (Wood et al., 2020). In environmental modelling that tracked four Chinese cities during the
lockdown, Burke (2020) noted that the economic disruption potentially saved the lives of 77,000
who would have otherwise died of issues relating to air pollution. These are significant indicatorsthat the public have noticed some difference and the sudden jolt to social life as we know it could
be what is needed to make redundant the old model of society and mark the beginning of a new
future.
Aims and Methodology
The aim of the study was to study the social, psychological, and emotional impact of lockdown had
on families and individuals during the coronavirus pandemic. The project made use of a 52
question semi-structured online survey which was split into five sections. The first section was
about general questions about coronavirus and if people were worried, how long they had been in
lockdown, how often they talked about it with others. The second section sought to ask aboutsocial distancing and self-isolating and whether the measures were appropriate, and what
measures people took to avoid contracting the virus (wear a mask, gloves, etc.). The next section
was on the specific experience of lockdown and how this had impacted on participants, thosenearest them or indeed those farthest away from them; particular attention was given to feelings
and habits which were undertaken more/the same/less as a consequence of the lockdown(sleeping, drinking, exercise, etc.). There was a section on perceptions of media and government
asking participants to reflect on the credibility of the former and the performance of the latter. The
penultimate section was a speculative set of questions about the future and, because ofcoronavirus, asking participants what it meant for the future and how did they think it now looked.
Lastly, there was section recording typical demographic information. The survey took around 15 to
18 minutes to complete and was live during a period of one month from 30 th March to 8th to May
2020 which covered lockdown for a large number of countries across the world. For the study tocapture how people were feeling during the lockdown, data collection was only reserved for thisperiod as leaving lockdown may have provoked other feelings. In total, 950 responses were madeto the survey (see sample demography for further detail).
Sampling
Coronavirus currently affects everyone around the world for varying reasons so the sampling
methodology should not discriminate as my principle aim was to see how this experience was felt
during a finite period of time. To assure the appeal and reach of the survey it was translated into
six languages which were English (n=534), Spanish (n=217), German (n=69), French (n=50) Italian(n=49), and Arabic (n=31). The choice of language was not necessarily made on any other basis
than I had access to these translators at this period of time. The survey was advertised via Linked
In on a daily basis in all six languages throughout the ‘live period’ of the survey. Additionally, it wasalso placed in Facebook forum discussion rooms based on Coronavirus (see Conroy et al. 2012).
This project was unfunded so there was no budget for advertising for participation via social media(Bennetts et al. 2016; Gu et al., 2016), so I joined ten different public and private coronavirus
discussion forums that covered Europe, America, South America, and Asia. General posts
advertising the study with the relevant language links were undertaken twice a week while
combined with posting general discussion questions (based on an element of thesurvey).
Sample Demography
Over the period in which the survey was open for completion, a total of 950 people completed it. Of
those 950, two-thirds were women (66 percent, n=623) and one third were men (34 percent n=324)
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and three did not declare. This shouldn’t be surprising as other studies on gender and Facebook
users have found that women tend to use the social networking site more than men (Biernatowska
et al. 2017; Alnajat et al. 2019). Participants from 58 different countries from around the world
completed the survey and almost three quarters were aged between 20 and 49 (74 percent,n=699) (see Table 1).
Table 01: Age Group of Sample
Age group 19 or under 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80 or Above
Number
10
229
242
228
157
67
17
0
Percentage
1
24
26
24
17
7
2
0

Total
950
100

Source: Field Survey

Just over half the sample was employed by companies (58 percent, n=547), nearly a fifth wereself-employed (15 percent, n=147) while 11 percent (n=106) were students and 7 percent (71)were unemployed. The remaining participants were retired.
Results
In this study which spanned the period of lockdowns in most countries, the sudden arrival of the‘virus’ caught most unaware: it was something unexpected, a fiction that didn’t appear real for
many. When asked how participants felt when first learning about the virus in comparison to what
they know about it now and how they feel about it, it was clear that the virus has made asubstantial number of people at lease quite worried (47 percent, n=424) or very worried (22percent, n=210) (see Figure 1)
Figure 01: Feelings about the Coronavirus: ‘When First Heard’ Vs ‘Now’

Feelings about Coronavirus
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Not worried

A little bit worried

Indifferent

Quite worried

Very worried

When you first heard about the Coronavirus, what did you feel?
Given what you know and have seen about this Coronavirus outbreak, how do how do you feel now?

To put this change in collective feeling in some better context the number of ‘quite worried’ people
more than tripled from n=126 to 424 and the number of ‘very worried’ people almost quadrupledfrom n=61 to 210. (Stats taken from ‘when first heard’ vs ‘now’ respectively)
Early analyses of the data show that such an extreme shift was prompted by a number ofdifferent macro-political elements such as the ‘risk’ of the virus
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(contagiousness and death rates), governmental responses/management coupled with
incessant media reporting and more social and subjective personal factors such as socio-economic
and/or labour circumstances, personal health status, and individual psychological state. Whilethese particular areas have not been considered for this article due to space restrictions, these areimportant components to prompting a change in perception that many felt very close to them, likethis woman from Sweden:“I think we've become way too disconnected from ourselves, spending our lives in aconstant state of stress and rarely making time for just taking things slow and reflecting
over our lives and ourselves. Because of lockdown a lot of people are now pretty muchforced to slow down and confront themselves, which I suppose is a good thing. For some, it
may be a wakeup call, as they may realize they've been spending their time focusing on thewrong things. In that the way the coronavirus crisis can be the catalyst someone needed toturn their life around.” (Female, 30-39, Sweden)
The lockdown experience took people out of their everyday circumstances of work, family,
routine and imposed on them a new set of norms and conditions which, in turn, started to reshape
how they organized their lives. In the UK for example, a slow governmental response combinedwith conflicting stances on when a lockdown should take place and under what conditions, andsudden vulnerability of millions of people, many communities showed solidarity and started working
together for each other:“Communities are coming together more, people are volunteering more to help one anotherand hopefully that will continue, people are learning to appreciate the simple things in life,
people are getting their priorities straight, everyone is having to slow down and become
more aware of their own mortality and that of people they love.” (Female, UK, 40-49)
In fact, when the UK government realized they couldn’t do it alone nor had the resources tocope with putting lockdown measures in place while assisting the vulnerable, they endorsed public
support by asking people to ‘clap for them’ and put out a call for volunteers. More than half amillion people put themselves forward to assist in supporting the health services – which had been
dilapidated in the face of years of cuts and austerity politics (Murphy, 2020). Still this had otherpeople feeling doubtful about, even in the face of such ‘solidarity’, that this could translate to‘change’:“I am fascinated with the "we are all in this together" but are we really? Are we really still
divided by economic/class? Hollywood, athletes, media personalities, upper class have themeans to get tested but what about how this is compared to the poor?” (Female, USA, 6069)“There is the potential to rethink our current system which is just waiting for the next crisis
to come (e.g. climate collapse) or the kind of work we value, but I'm pessimistic about that
actually going to lead to change.” (Male, Austria, 20-29)“I think things will either sooner or later will go back to how they were because this is how
we are. I very much hope it is not going to be how things become, but I do think we will end
up in the same mess from where we started. Maybe the scientific community will havebetter cooperation among themselves, maybe more people will continue to cook forthemselves, but in general, most people will continue to get back to the way things were. I
hope not, but I think so.” (Male, Hungary, 30-39)
For some participants the advent of the coronavirus exposed the system, its inequality and,in some cases, a feeling of scepticism among a few highlighted in this quotes above. When asked
4whether coronavirus exposed the fragility of society or its potential to demonstrate solidarity, there
was a tendency for people to indicate the latter (Figure 2).
Figure 02: Views on Whether the Advent of Coronavirus Exposes the Fragility of Society Vs
How it Can Show Solidarity

42%
Expose how fragile society is

58%
Show how society can demonstrate solidarity

This dichotomy between ‘solidarity’ and ‘fragility’ was recognized by some participants; theformer tending to be seen as a temporary feature while the latter to exacerbate poverty and social
suffering as these three quotes from participants from Turkey, Brazil and Portugal indicate:“Everything has a benefit ... as the virus now shows how important it is to unite all groups ofsociety and all state institutions.” (Male, Turkey, 20-29).
“Maybe it can expose the contradictions of the capitalism, make people more aware of how
the rich are just trying to screw us up. Then, maybe we could start some new solidarity
networks. I just joined one to help!” (Brazil, Male, 40-49)“Well, I think that by now ... those benefits exist only in a ‘potential form’ - we would needsome strong reflection work during and after the crisis to actually create benefits out of this.
Of course, the pollution dropped and some solidarity has been shown, but for how long will
they last after this is over? On the other hand, I fear that social unbalance will be evenstronger, and the poorer will be left with even less resources. I think this could be a great
opportunity for one to reflect on the way we are living, but we are really billions of people
around the world, and it's kind of impossible to reflect globally, so I'm very sceptical about
this. Not such a bad case scenario, but I think we will continue as before.” (Male, Portugal,
40-49).
So the virus, its risk and a sudden rupture in the status quo in everyday life prompted many
people to rethink their current situations and reflect on the state of the world in the face of a virus
which they perceived to be here for medium-to-long term (see Figure 3). Nearly three-quarters of
the sample (71 percent, n= 672) expected the virus to return in some form (Figure 3). The
uncertainty around these renewed ‘waves’ of infection as well as a reliable and widely-available
vaccine coupled with the accumulating debt as governments throw money at science and prop up
millions of people in their respective economies creates collective insecurity and major doubt about
the future. This was certainly evident in these three quotes from people from Chile, UK and
Morocco:5

“I don't know, I think that in a few months we will be able to see benefits or destruction
because everything depends on what happens in the impact of the world economy.”(Female, Chile, 30-39)“I have concerns about those living in cramped, challenging and abusive conditions and theimpact on global economy and forgotten issues - migration, war, poverty, other diseases
and the impact on mental health for those who are alone etc.” (Female, UK, 40-45)“There are no benefits at all. Rather, on the contrary, society is tired and people feelanxious and constantly afraid of the unknown, and there is no longer hope for humans to do
anything.” (Male, Morocco, 50-59)
Figure 03: Perceptions of Short-to-Medium-to-Long Term Life of the VirusDo you think the 'virus' is:
Is here to stay for the foreseeable future

Take a while to control and then return

Take a while to control but then disappear

Be under control soon then disappear

Disappear
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

What the future holds, however, we cannot say or know. What seems quite clear though is that thatthe future is now different (see Figure 4).
Figure 04: Coronavirus and the Future

The future has already been drastically changed becauseof the Coronavirus outbreak

306

There is perhaps an opportunity for us to think
differently about society

539

Things will either sooner or later will go back to how
they were

165

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

While there is general agreement at least that this is an opportunity to think about potentialchange, there was also ambiguity. This was reflected in how participants felt about their6professional futures, or that of their families, in the context of work/education (see Figure 5) forover one-third of the sample felt that ‘coronavirus had placed many doubts in their mind about the
future’ as this woman from the US wrote:“My biggest stressor right now is the economy. There are already more people unemployed
and more to come. I’m worried about my husband losing his career even as things start tobounce back. He’s a pilot and 9/11 saw a 12-year furlough for many. That’s terrifying. I’m
also worried about the mental health of people; I know our local hospital has already seen aspike in demand. Being alone and stressed isn’t a good combination for anyone, let alone
someone with a history of depression and anxiety.” (Female, USA, 30-39)
Figure 05: How Do You Feel About Your Professional Future or that of Your Families?

17%
36%

47%

Yes, Coronavirus places many doubts in my mind about the future
Yes, to some degree I feel worriedNo, not at all, it will be fine

Perhaps we now feel a little bit more professionally redundant as nurses, supermarket
cashiers, waste workers and the like continued working during the lockdown despite the potential
high risk of infection. In the end, it was these people in these forgotten public service industries
which enabled the world to continue to function at its most basic level:“Rethinking our way of living, consuming, moving around. At the political level, understandthat we have gone too far in our capitalist Western societies where only money counts.
Today, which jobs are still essential on which people still move around? Education andhealth. These are underpaid and very little valued jobs, even though they are the mostimportant ones.” (Male, France, 30-39)
In a situation where mass debt could prompt governments to be more scrupulous about
spending may dent our newfound ‘social consciousness for supporting everyone in a global society
as Figure 6 indicates. When asked ‘in a situation which would see most people contract the virus,
should we either spend money on either a) protecting the vulnerable at any cost or b) ensuring thesafety of the majority’ public opinion was split:

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Figure 06: Where Should Money is spent in the Event of Most People Contracting the Virus

Protecting thevulnerable at any
cost

Ensuring thesafety of the
majority

For now, all we can do is hope for the elusive ‘curve’ to flatten, wash our hands and follow thenews for a vaccine.
Conclusion
This paper has attempted to measure how the experience of lockdown for 950 people from 58
different countries around the world has impacted on perceptions of the future. I have used aquantitative methodology to gather this information via an online survey of which used a sampling
methodology via Facebook and Linked-In. There is no doubt that the survey did not reach thepoorest of the world’s populations for this as this participant recognized from Honduras:“There is a need to compare our middle-class lockdown and its impacts with those who are
in real poverty, without access to space, internet, food, water, remote work and healthcare.
This virus is shown in some social media as a lovely street party creator but also is creating
huge inequality and risk for those who are not so fortunate and it is to these people weshould focus our efforts on helping.” (Male, Honduras, 40-49)
Undoubtedly, the majority of my participants wrote their responses from places of privilege
by comparison in that most have places to live. This said I was interested in how the experience of
lockdown was felt personally and emotionally for these people, and how combined with media
influence and the way their governments and health systems were dealing with the virus, impacted
their perceptions of the future.
The results of the survey seem to reveal, on the one hand, that the arrival of coronavirus, its
impact on their society and the subsequent lockdown provokes some self-reflection and allowed
many people to re-evaluate to some degree elements of their professional and personal lives andabout the way the world works. Of note, was the connection some had found with other people andsolidarity networks while others had quite utopian ideas about how the world could change, about
how human rights could be improved for people and how a greater social justice might prevail as aconsequence of all this? On the other hand, there was a sense of scepticism about how the global
the system could change, perhaps reflective by a feeling of impotence: that the scale of change
was in fact too broad and it, because of issues like climate change, it was all happening a bit toolate as this man from the UK wrote:8

“I do hope I'm wrong and that we change but clapping and volunteering is not new. These
are cheap and ‘easy’. Radical change is hard. Like climate change. If we want to change
we have to make the tough decisions.” (Male, UK, 30-39)
The quote from this man which refers to the UK’s volunteer scheme and solidarity efforts to‘clap’ NHS staff pierces the ideological neoliberal mantras and gets to the core of the issue:
instigating real social change. What seems certain is that some form of restructuring will be
required. The big question relates to a) will it either drastically reform the world order; b) will things
return to the pre-coronavirus normal and neoliberalism will continue with its ‘business as usual’; orc) will the current status quo be exacerbated in the wake of our economic ‘recovery’ and we see
neoliberalism become more powerful and unmerciful. Should we continue to confide in the existing
frameworks of social policy, international law and commercial ventures, we should expect things todeteriorate because of the way in which the coronavirus is unfolding highlights the deficits of thecurrent system and its operations. New ideas need to be realized to sew up society’s mass gashes
and open bleeding so the question will be how quickly and efficiently the world’s political surgeons
can operate what tools they use and if they discover the right treatment.
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