Five Major Digital Lifestyle Replacements In the Post-COVID Era With the pandemic around, people are getting time to explore the virtual world better, and that's why they are able to use it in an optimized manner

When we talk about life before and after COVID-19, it seems like a comparison of two different worlds. The pandemic has changed the way of living life entirely. Maintaining social distancing, wearing the mask, avoiding crowded places is the new normal. People are discovering new and safer ways of doing things that they previously used to do without the fear of getting infected. Put simply, everyone is trying to do things virtually sitting in his home as much as possible. With the pandemic around, people are getting time to explore the virtual world better, and that's why they are able to use it in an optimized manner. Enumerated below are five major changes that the digital lifestyle has brought in our lives in the post-COVID era.

Cashback websites for shopping

Cashback websites are different from usual e-commerce websites. When one shops through a cashback website, it redirects the person on the page of an e-commerce website. On purchasing through the link of a cashback website, it gives one large amount of cashback, unlike a common e-commerce website. The pandemic has disturbed the financial stability of innumerable people that's why it is important to make economical deals. In the post-COVID era, cashback websites are gaining immense significance due to two reasons. First, it is safe to buy things online than going for a physical shopping session at such a time when it is not free from danger to go out unnecessarily. Second, by shopping through a cashback website, one can save a good amount of money in the form of cashback. Then why not to go for it! Pandemic has completely changed the perspective regarding online shopping, and this digital lifestyle is easing the ways of doing things.

Digital medical consultation

With pandemic around, people avoided even going to doctors due to the fear of getting infected by the virus. That gave rise to digital medical consultation in India. Although the term is not new, it was not in much use in India before the pandemic. With sitting at home, patients can seek the advice of their doctors through telecalling and video conferencing. Although the fact is physical consultation will always be more effective than digital consultation but, at such a time, it is best to seek online medical consultation as much as possible for diseases that don't require deep or thorough examination. In the post-COVID era too, digital medical consultation will remain effective.

Digital learning

The pandemic affected some sectors gravely, and the education sector was among the worst-hit sectors. Ever since the outbreak of COVID, schools and colleges never opened completely and in that situation, digital learning found its space in the education sector. Although some edtech companies were involved in educating students digitally pre-COVID, the concept was not much trending in India. But now, the scenario is entirely different. For the past one year, students are attending classes online and learning digitally. Not only learning but even exams are being conducted online. In starting, this proved to be challenging for many aged teachers but adapting to the new environment was the need of the hour.

E-reading

With everything closed around, including book stores, people resorted to e-reading as the last option. Sitting at home and having access to innumerable books and articles, e-reading proved to be cheap than buying expensive books. Not only books, people in the COVID era stopped the subscription of physical newspapers and magazines also and started reading e-newspapers. In some places, e-reading was not the choice but the only option. But overall, e-reading proved to be more worth than physical reading, especially at this time.

Rise in digital entertainment

When everything was closed due to the lockdown, people didn't have much to do at homes. Sources of fun and refreshment, such as outdoor games, gymnasium, etc., were also not the options to kill or utilise the time. At that time, people gave their time to digital entertainment such as movies, web series and serials. According to reports, over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime made huge revenues in past one year. Not only this, in the post-COVID era too, people are preferring digital entertainment in the form of subscriptions to OTT platforms.

Final thoughts

The intensity and severity of the pandemic keep changing with time. Presently, the country is in the clutch of the second wave of infection, and it is important to remain safe by staying at home as much as possible. At this time, the value of the digital lifestyle is discernible. Therefore, it is paramount to turn to digital ways of doing things.