What’s next, especially post Covid? The question could quite possibly be the most oft asked in this unprecedented year, when life as we have known it has gone topsy-turvy, with myriad real-life consequences, many adversely affecting people around the world. It has also led many to question their life choices. In Future Shock, advertising guru and writer Sandeep Goyal makes a case for many changes that are around the corner, or already upon us. Yes, the name is derived from Alvin Toffler’s ground-breaking 1970 book of the same name and, much like it, explores the changes in society due to an unforeseen shock.
The book takes the reader through changes (already in effect or in the offing) in various aspects of our life – education, health, travel and transport, shopping, leisure and entertainment, jobs, advertising, media, beauty, the future of homes and even religion.
In the section on travel, it notes that the sector is ‘on its knees worldwide’ – that, in India alone, the sector employs about 38 million people, aside from those working in aviation and starred hotels. The chapters in the first part of the book each have 25 trends listed within them, and those for travel include – closing of international borders, slowing of business travel, MICE segment ‘in a coma’, reduction in leisure, religious, cruise, retiree and group travel, as well as destination weddings, air travel becoming more expensive, drop in spends on shopping and food. It notes some positives too, such as nature reclaiming its spaces, reduction in crowds at airports (the aviation sector may not see this as an advantage!), price reduction in hotel rates, etc, more experiential travel, rise in road trips, etc.
Changing trends
Similar points are made in sections on food, jobs, education, health, etc. The chapter on food makes points such as significant decrease in eating out, combined with an increase in home cooking, more off-the-shelf products, decline in street food but increase in takeaways, pop-up kitchens and freelancer chefs, stress on technology and cleanliness by restaurants, decline in banqueting and catering as well as closing of vanity restaurants. Education, too, looks to take a hit, with the book pointing to even less enrolment post Covid, a reduction in ‘learning’, with even technology failing to bridge the gap in education while benefitting the more well off. Other sections have similarly delineated trends.
“Tomorrow will be a new dawn,” the author notes. “What we make of it is entirely in our own hands. Change is desirable; change is inevitable. Change, in fact, has been forced upon us. Whether we use the opportunity to advantage or let it pass us by will decide whether the future will shock us or whether we will create shock-absorbers that will in fact use the impact to cushion us in our journey to a better tomorrow.” Indeed!
The book was written before any of Covid vaccine trial results were made public, and the efficacy of these results could of course substantially alter some of the impacts he outlines, especially if life substantially returns to pre-Covid levels. Nevertheless, this book, born in this crisis, shows the way to the future while making a number of relevant points about the changes in the offing. Readers would do well to remember that this may not be the last such pandemic, even in our lifetimes.