Idea. Potential. #8 Isolation and Distance: Thoughts so far.
By: Jacob Naish
Tags: Technology, Economics, Isolation, Love, Sociology

Thanks for coming back to read again. Crazy times right? And we’ve got a long way to go yet. We’re being told this is just the beginning, and yet it already feels like we’ve been uncharacteristically self-restrictive for too long. We just need to stay safe and follow the guidance. We can do this!

Despite the novelty of the situation we all find ourselves in, I feel we’ve actually already learned a great deal about ourselves as a collective when facing a crisis of this order of magnitude. Moreover, the fact that the most stringent measures (such as in Japan, Singapore, Italy or Spain) are not in place yet in the places I mostly contact or reside in (I speak regularly with people in North America, I’m from the UK and am in daily contact with people there, and I live in Denmark), means we can still draw some conclusions about how social relations change when we have a degree of control over them. So what are those lessons? I’ve highlighted five below that stick out to me, but I’m looking forward to hearing yours.

The will to change the world and solutions to change it could manifest

The news that pollution cleared in China, or that the canals of Venice cleared within days of the lockdown offered fascinating and optimistic insights into the potential byproducts of this crisis. But humanity and the planet could yet benefit in totally unforeseen ways. Why is this possible? For a start, this is the first truly global crisis response in at least 4 generations (the Global Financial Crisis of 08/09 was global in effect, but not in response). What marks Corona virus apart from the experience of the Second World War is the fact that almost the entirety of the world is united in a common purpose: to stop the spread of the virus. There are not ‘sides’ in the same way as the armed conflicts we have experienced before. Similarly, the potential is hight for this crisis’s response to expand on the principles of global citizenship in the midst of what has been, until this point, a dramatic lurch to the right of politics. Whether that potential is in fact capitalised upon will rely to some degree on the depth of the financial impact. But arguably, governments in the UK and the US have so far responded much more like socialists than is usually tolerated by the more right-leaning electorate they claim to represent. This could be a good sign. Though the stimulus so far is thought to be around 2 trillion US dollars (far less than the almost 30 trillion made available in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis), the taps are still on, and the fact that much of this stimulus is aimed at jobs, smaller companies and individuals is a refreshing change.

Society and relations within it will change, for better and for worse

The way people interact with each other is already one of the most common topics in all of our conversations no doubt. Here in Copenhagen, if you’re on your way to the supermarket, taking a run, walking your dog, or going to the pharmacy and you see someone, they have no problem whatsoever in doing a sharp 90 degree turn to avoid being within a few metres of you. The behaviour is justified and understandable, but we’re also still at the beginning of this. After three months or more of needing to police the distances between one another, what practices will remain after the outbreak passes?

Similarly, the way in which people interact in necessary and shared spaces is now both regulated and self-policed in a virtually unprecedented way. I’ve never seen so many people proactively enforcing distance rules with each other as I did yesterday on my trip to the supermarket (yes, to buy loo-roll). The way in which people respond to behaviour will be a dynamic process that will leave its mark on society, possibly indelibly. One thing that I find fascinating is the level of both sharing and shaming on social media and in the news. Individuals are finding their moments of fame and infamy in the crisis. TikTok seems to be the platform of choice right now for this, but you can find mainstream media outlets using social media images to highlight points, especially about irresponsible behaviour.

Relations will change in terms of our discourse too. We now have an actual reference point for ‘lockdown’ for example. We know what it means, when we could only imagine it before. Expect new language to develop for the phenomena we are experiencing over the next few weeks, as well as repurposing the phrases we are learning now. ‘Social distancing’ and ‘flattening the curve’ will be applied and reapplied in the most appropriate and inappropriate of settings soon; you can be sure of that.

The value of certain platforms and products will change forever

The value of things will shift and certain products and services will become inextricably linked to this crisis in our imaginations. It will be news to no one to see the demand for video and chat services skyrocketing. But the need for certain types of technology will become rooted in our experiences here and now. Epic Games’ purchase of House Party in June 2019 now seems almost prescient, and the Corona outbreak has led it to become the number one downloaded app on the App Store for social media, overtaking TikTok. This should come as no surprise. The video conferencing tech dressed as social media has a feel that is reminiscent of the initial impact of Facebook or Friends Reunited: completely in-sync with the zeitgeist. It will not be possible to divorce your discovery of House Party from the experience of isolation under the conditions of the spread of corona virus. Therefore, the value associated with that platform changes from one with intrinsic social value to one with social plus ‘survival’ value. That is to say, House Party and the other technology and content that we will see born and distributed during this period will become the media we associate with our perceptions of their essentiality, as we play with them in our self-made bunkers now.

New skills will be developed

Watch out in 2024: the next generation of young footballers, basketball players, and gamers could perhaps be the most skilful of all time. What would a player give to get three months honing a winning technique or skill, perhaps working on an individual weakness, or maybe developing something crazy and totally new? The gifted, the committed, and the stubborn are going to get those chances. Celebrities sharing workout videos online is the tip of the iceberg, and the fact that isolation in the 2020s no longer means skills go unrecognised as they get developed (thanks social media!) will lead to even greater numbers of iterations as techniques get shared. Perhaps computer engineers will write the code that creates a singularly intelligent and unified AI? Who knows. But the Shakespeare/King Lear and Shelley/Frankenstein examples are constantly featuring right now because of isolation’s potential to foster creativity.

The way we talk now to those we love will define our relationships

This is a serious moment in human history; one which is already drawing the use of terminology usually reserved for armed conflict. Some people have already compared the response to the spread of Covid-19 to the aftermath of 9/11 and World War 2. Whether it becomes a moment in history that warrants association with reaction in militarised periods is yet to be discerned, but the fact of the existence of such comparisons speaks to the severity. These times will become punctuated in ours and our families’ minds with the stories we tell about them in the future. But they’ll also be synonymous with the time we spend together now and the way we talked with each other. I worked out that to spend the waking time that I’ve spent with my wife and kids in the last ten days I would need 40 days in normal times. And its had a massive effect on all of us. We’ve got to know each other better, we’ve learned a lot together, we’ve learned a lot about each other, and I think the depth of our conversations has been really surprising. Of course, we are driving each other crazy too, but its possible that both tendencies — love and chaos — happen simultaneously I guess (I hope!).