So, basically most people will go back to normal very quickly, a few will take a short time to get back to normal. A tiny few will struggle, but it will be a tiny few. I think.
Risk of transmission outdoors is very low
But for a lot of activities you might do outdoors of any duration there's usually a bit of indoors involved. We could have bolstered the ailing events industry by installing 90s Music Festival style open air latrines in every town - but the limiting factor is being out for any amount of time or in any numbers or traveling any distance is the need to use a loo and public toilets tend to be the perfect size, shape and contact surfaces for covid transmission.
In terms of what will in future will be normal will be interesting - it'll take a while to see what temporary changes become permanent.
They say it takes two weeks to form or break a habit - so a whole year or more of changed routines is going to leave some marked changes in how we continue to live our lives. Far less profound events have left lasting legacies - The 1976 heat wave turned the UK from mostly beer drinkers to mostly lager drinkers simply because lager was colder - even though that was a relatively short episode the change in habits stuck
War and rationing changed a lot of habits too and we still have a generation around who's tastes and values were shaped by that- especially in relation to food (and food waste)
The nearest peace-time equivalent in terms with its global impact and duration would probably be 'The Year without a Summer' in the early 1800s - a period of global crop failures and famine, plunging global temperatures, yellow skies and blue snow- our aesthetic for Christmas is still an echo of that as its the winters Dickens remembered. We celebrate his memory of Christmas not our on experience of it. In fact its the whole world's idea of Christmas - Australian Christmas cards and decorations have snow on them even though they celebrate Christmas in the middle of summer. But there's an incredible number of cultural and literary echos of that year. It was a fairly instrumental in the evolution of the bicycle too - adoption of bikes being driven by there not being enough oats to feed horses.
Think about previous big things which at the time you would imagine would have changed behaviour for good – but didn’t.
9/11 – we thought no one would work in a high rise building or get on a plane – we were wrong.
I think you're looking in the wrong place for a lasting legacy from 9/11.
but the limiting factor is being out for any amount of time or in any numbers or traveling any distance is the need to use a loo and public toilets tend to be the perfect size, shape and contact surfaces for covid transmission.
Most public toilets are not rammed with people* even without Covid restrictions, and if you manage to catch Covid from a contact surface in the convenience then you need to question your own hygiene.
*obviously in normal times there are exceptions - services on a bank hol and festivals spring to mind, but even the toilets at the most popular beach locally is never crammed enough to be a concern.
Thought it took 6 weeks to form a habit?
Thinking of all the people I’ve met this academic year (I’m a teacher) and never seen the lower half of their face.
You can form a habit - in whatever time. But the flipside is you can form an new one or unlearn an old one just as fast.
People are motivated by the same stuff whatever situation they are in.
There is a famous photo of some women having their hair done in a bombed out hairdresser the day WWII finished. Rubble and ruins all around them, but they were there having their hair/makeup done with a grin.
People tend to do what everyone else is doing - so it wont take long for the pub garden to fill up in late spring/summer, then when it gets cold in Autumn, we will all be back inside for the winter as if Covid was all a dream or some episode in a show on TV.
Well in 2 weeks time I’ll probably be spending 6hr a day with 25 17/18 year olds in a poorly ventilated room with no social distancing and masks not required. Just like last sept to Dec.
Nothing like going from one extreme to another.
Probably seem normal again by the end of the week.
Same.
In September it took about an hour to feel normal.
The risk of transmission outdoors is do low they've actually said that there have been no outbreaks connected to the beach gatherings that were vilified in the press:
9/11 – we thought no one would work in a high rise building or get on a plane – we were wrong.
Tube/bus bombing – we thought no one would get on a tube/bus – we were wrong.
Even the AIDS claim was pushing it there was a push for safe sex and there still is but those two are complete bollocks. However, people will quickly revert back to how we were, some traits may remain from the last year but overall people will be back as we were.
Hasn’t stopped me getting a bloody cold!
Cold viruses are airborne though.