The development of new technologies, accelerated by the coronavirus shock, can also lead to the emergence of new types of inequality between different groups of modern society, for example, in leisure practices. Offline art will become, as it was in the industrial society, the domain of mostly rich and super-rich people. A trip to the opera house or a visit to the world-famous museum will be seen as a demonstration of status.


All of us will have to not only integrate into new forms of employment, but also get used to new forms of virtual joint leisure-both representatives of the Mediterranean culture, who are accustomed to long joint feasts and close communication, and Russians with their habit of inviting and visiting.

On the other hand, the current crisis can teach generation Z not to live in one day and make its representatives think about the near and distant future, plan and make savings.

Today, we see a desperate attempt by restaurants and cafes to survive by delivering food to their homes, but without changing the technological processes in the main production, such attempts will hardly help to cover the decline in turnover.

It will require a radical restructuring of the business: the transition from mass purchase of products and mass production for the preparation and consumption of dishes in restaurants and gastro-markets to the formation of communities of loyal consumers based on the taste preferences, time and frequency of consumption of certain dishes. Artificial intelligence and the Internet of things will become as much a prerequisite for success as a great chef. And from mass purchases of products for the future, you will have to move to point purchases-depending on the incoming orders. If the public catering service does not cope with this, then its services will be provided by other economic agents.

Similar changes can be expected in other leisure and hospitality industries. Cinema will start to go online even faster, and museums and theaters have already begun to compete with each other in creating their own virtual platforms on the Internet.

Students mostly welcome the opportunity to switch to online — it is easier to combine studies with numerous other activities and temptations. It is no secret that many of them come to university today with extremely low social interaction skills. They can hardly strengthen them while sitting in front of a monitor. Yes, group online discussions are also possible, but joint project work still requires a certain level of socialization in the real world — where and how will they acquire it?