Assistant Professor
Marta Nowakowska
The Future of Communication and Human Relations after the Pandemic
Bio
Dr. Marta Nowakowska is an Assistant Professor at the General Tadeusz Kosciuszko Military University of Land Forces (AWL) in Wroclaw (Poland).
She has a PhD in anthropology of culture and history.
Her doctoral dissertation at the University of Wroclaw concerned the relationship between ethnic identity and national policy in South Africa.
Her research interests focus on cultural competencies and inter-cultural communication, cultural safety, anthropology of culture, military culture, African development, humanitarian assistance and media awareness.
She has contributed to a number of publications having written four books and ten book chapters as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals on matters relating to cultural safety, media manipulation, human and cultural factors in technical systems and national heritage.
For several years Marta Nowakowska worked as a journalist – mostly covering social and gender issues in Poland but also working with non-governmental organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and the Far East.
Abstract
Keywords: Communication, Human Relations, Post-Covid Reality, Trauma
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The most common question on people's minds during a pandemic was (and still is) - when will we return to normal reality?
.Well, never. Precovid reality and postcovid reality are two different realities. And it's not about living with another virus (i.e. regular vaccinations or other precautions), it's about the fact that people have changed. Two years of confinement, lockdowns, limiting contacts to virtual reality, transferring the sphere of emotions to the level of emoticons in social media, lack of closeness, and alienation caused irreversible changes.
The outbreak of the pandemic in a short time forced us to change our habits. Wherever possible, the home office appeared, teaching and shopping also went online, and interpersonal contacts were reduced to the necessary minimum. Elderly people had to stay in their homes, often alone. Children lost contact with their colleagues.
The home space became a workspace. Opportunities for relaxation were lacking. Depression among students is recorded at 70%. We talk to each other less often. And the topics of conversation revolve mainly around pandemics.
Using information, mainly from the Internet, we also allow ourselves to get caught up in the manipulation of facts. It is not without reason that at the very beginning of the pandemic the WHO announced an infodemic - more dangerous in its consequences than the pandemic itself.
The aim of the presentation is to show the changes that have occurred in communication - both verbal and non-verbal and in everyday interpersonal relations and to indicate new norms of behaviour in postcovid reality.