The Experience of Young Adults in Heading toward the “New Normal”: “I Can Imagine Myself Getting Old with a Mask on My Face”

• Authors: Rita Vaičekauskaitė , Jon Stewart , Lina Gedrimė , Jurgita Babarskienė

Abstracts

EN

The COVID-19 pandemic is recognized as one of the most dramatic global health, social, and economic crises of the last decades, and maybe the whole century. Therefore, it is obvious that there is a need to examine the constructs of new thinking, new ways of life, and new behavior, which will help people not only to overcome the pandemic but also to build a future after it. The words isolation, quarantine, social distancing, lockdown, masks, antibodies, and zoom meeting quickly became the keywords of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, which is based on an analysis of the scientific literature and interviews, we ask whether new behavioral patterns such as social distancing, mask-wearing, online communication, and others might become the “new normal”. However, what might be perceived as the “new normal” to some, may seem like social absurdity to others. Thus, with an open-minded approach, we analyze the “new normal” as a complex, controversial, and evolving concept.

Keywords

EN

young adults; COVID-19; pandemic; “new normal”; absurdity; existential crisis; experience; nihilism.

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Kultura i Edukacja
• Year: 2021
• Issue: 4(134)
• Pages: 187-211

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Rita Vaičekauskaitė

• Klaipeda University

author

Jon Stewart

• Slovak Academy of Sciences

author

Lina Gedrimė

• Klaipeda University

author

Jurgita Babarskienė

• LCC International University

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Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/kie.2021.04.11

Biblioteka Nauki

1931963