The coronavirus seems to be all that anyone can talk about at the moment. It has completely taken over the world both physically by impacting people and also socially, economically and mentally. Lives and lifestyles have been completely uprooted by the impacts of this virus and almost everybody has had to change and adapt to it. In following and scanning different reactions to this change in lifestyle, I have found that the positive reactions have helped me personally as well. I have found that through social media and other forms of communication, people are giving each other advice on what to do with each day and how they are going about their days. More specifically, I have seen videos of reorganizing bedrooms, painting bedrooms, and cleaning bathrooms. Everyone’s daily routine has changed tremendously, and people are inspiring each other by sharing their struggles and new ways of life. I have found this personally inspiring and have used different and new ideas for how to spend my days. I have also seen a significant increase in people walking around outside in my neighborhood or just spending time outside. I have never seen so many people outside at once in my neighborhood before this pandemic.
A situation similar to this was the Spanish Flu, or H1N1. After reading a bit about this breakout, I realized that although this situation is terrible and has uprooted most of our lives, the ability to still stay in communication with one another and continue with our lives virtually is incredible. In thinking about the social impact from the Spanish Flu where thousands of people died, it must have been much harder for people to continue with their lives because everything was put on hold and there was no way to keep up with it without being present and risking lives.
In creating this constraint map for COVID-19 and our life changes, I tried to see things from all different perspectives, whether it be my personal response or the way overall society is responding. Initially I struggled with identifying what my three larger categories would be based off of the design, production, and end-user model. I tried to incorporate elements of this model into my own personalized COVID-19 version while also making it relevant to the current situation. I started with thinking about end-user, and how this situation was affecting me and then build off of that. I found that communication was tying together my own pe3rsonal experience and the overall reaction of society. I was able to see both the negative and positive sides of the responses to COVID-19. My biggest struggle with this assignment was being able to identify all sides of society and culture while also connecting it to end-user and the communication aspect. In making opportunity areas from this constraint map, I highlighted ideas including self-care, no set routine, adaptation, and new inspiration. Self-care can be turned around in a situation like this and time can be used to really focus on the self when with a normal routine, people might not have the chance to do so. Similarly, with not having a set routine, it gives people the opportunity to shape or build their new lifestyle in a way that they want and that will benefit them the most in the coming months dealing with this. This ties into how adapting is necessary, and everyone must adapt to the new situation regardless of what their old situation was. There is no use wanting to go back to an old routine because it is essentially impossible given the circumstances and therefore adapting to the new way of life is crucial. This then leads to finding new inspiration in adapting to the new lifestyle. Whether that be from other people or social media, there are many opportunities for new forms of inspiration.
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