Untact Trend? Focus on the Deep Social Structures -3

https://ryan-reason.durumis.com/ko/untact-trend-focus-on-the-deeper-social-structure-2-cpmdfkos

Continuing from the second post...

Four Deep Structures to Observe in Relation to This

While there are various "deep structures" that concretize human behavior, they are somewhat abstract. Therefore, I would like to suggest the following four points as clues to understanding future behavioral changes.

A. Finding a Sense of Belonging; How to Feel Connected to Others

Humans are social beings. The cultural and economic structures of our society reflect our innate tendency to physically gather close to others to connect and belong. However, COVID-19 led to a conflict between this innate tendency and individual safety and collective responsibility. It presented a compelling reason to distance ourselves from the acts of connection with others that were so familiar: sporting events, office work, attending concerts and local festivals, meetings, and shared meals.

Relatively new forms of "togetherness," such as Zoom conference calls, online games, virtual concerts and fashion festivals, and e-sports viewership, are already surging and changing how people interact traditionally. However, it remains unclear to what extent replacing physical proximity and contact with contact-free alternatives will satisfy people's needs for connection and belonging, or how these behaviors will evolve in the future.

Now, we need to question what the meaning of terms like "connection" or "community" might become, or how our lives will change if social distancing becomes the accepted interpersonal distance.

What will be the new forms of belonging in a world where people are more socially distant than before? What kind of corporate support is needed to fulfill this unmet need for social belonging? This could be an opportunity to redefine the scope of possibilities regarding the productivity of employees experiencing remote work and customer loyalty to a brand.

B. Daily Rituals and Habits; How to Structure and Meaningfully Use Time

The way we structure and use our time during the day holds significance in building or securing a sense of control and stability in life. This includes actions like waking up in the morning and eating an apple or engaging in a set exercise routine, having a five-day work week and going out to enjoy the seasonality on weekends, or participating in family or friends' birthdays, weddings, and funerals.

How we manage our relationship with time is also crucial in business. The now-common miniaturization trend of mobile phones was based on the value of facilitating smooth communication in business settings for entrepreneurs, and air travel, under the goal of "rapid knowledge sharing," has grown into an industry and culture in itself in the form of international business trips.

Now, we can directly experience and frequently see around us how COVID-19 has instantaneously disrupted the relationship people had with time. How can the meaning of "work time," spent at home rather than in the office without commuting, be redefined? If people in cities cannot go to local tourist attractions on vacation, what will summer mean to residents of those areas? If we have to celebrate milestones like weddings or holidays remotely with loved ones, how can the moments that were meaningful to us remain important?

For brands that have heavily relied on occasion-based marketing during the pre-COVID-19 era, these changes in deep structure necessitate questions like how their customers' daily routines will be reconstructed and how they can reveal their brand's presence within that context, based on an understanding of this.

C. Sense of Scale; How to Experience Intimacy and Connectedness Among People

COVID-19 drastically reduced the distance people could travel—or at least consider traveling—causing them to reconsider a lifestyle centered around local communities rather than a global one, and significantly reducing the physical range of their daily experiences. This ultimately signifies a change in interpersonal relationships, leading to a continuous shift in people's perceptions of familiarity and comfort levels in conversations, as well as how connected they feel to others' lives.

So, how will this altered mutual perception change the way brands influence customers? Or could this changed perception of intimacy and distance alter the meaning of a brand feeling close or relevant to its customers?

For companies investing in digital channel marketing and e-commerce platforms, these questions represent a significant opportunity to reconsider the meaning and potential of their relationship with customers.

D. Presence in Public Spaces; How to Perform Social Roles in Front of Others

Sociologists have observed and understood that our consideration of how to position ourselves in public spaces is a strategic act of "impression management," where we construct our own identities and shift roles to feel comfortable around others. People portray themselves differently on the streets or on social media channels than they do at home or in private conversations with close ones. In other words, this change in our roles and behavior in public spaces is an implicit social skill.

Due to COVID-19, people now have to consider new roles on the stage of public space, different from the past. How are people reacting in the current situation where a simple mask leads to judgments and criticism based on moral and social norms? How are they experiencing the heightened state control over individuals? Or what behaviors that were previously possible in public spaces have shifted online? And how can brands approach and build relationships with this new audience of roles?

Answers to these questions can provide meaningful clues to the future design and operation of restaurants and retail spaces.

It seems clear that COVID-19 served as a massive catalyst, akin to an alien invasion, making our society realize its limitations and prompting investment in change.

And predicting how long this process of anxiety and stagnation will last, or to what extent it will lead to lasting changes, is essentially meaningless. The same applies to the possibility of changes at the level of deep social structures mentioned in this article.

Our existing social systems may weather this COVID-19 crisis without major disruption, or they may produce fundamental and lasting changes in one or two of the areas mentioned above, or they may even eliminate the very possibility of a return to the previous state, pushing our society in a completely new direction.

One thing is certain: if you want to be among the first to know what's possible and prepare for it, focusing on these deep structures may be the best investment now for a strategy that allows for sustained growth.