COVID -19, a trending issue of global concern, has turned people’s lives upside down occasioning a huge amount of change in the world today. COVID -19 has fundamentally altered certain aspects of everyday life across the globe. In other words, COVID -19 has in one way or another occasioned changes in the way we do things, it has occasioned culture change. Culture is “a system of beliefs, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and are shared by a group of people and which are transmitted from generation to generation, rarely with explicit instructions” (www.peacecorps.org).
Culture is not innate or inborn. Nobody teaches us our culture directly thus it is often learnt unconsciously. People are sometimes not aware of how their behaviors and attitudes have been shaped by their culture. Thus, what we consider normal in our everyday life is shaped by our cultures. For instance, our cultures will determine whether we shake hands when we meet (as has been the trend worldwide), do the Namaste (as is customary among the Hindu), bow (as is common in the orient) or whether to hug or kiss (as a form of greeting).
Read the rest of Dr. George Jefwa’s article on our Research and Innovation Blog, https://uonresearch.org/blog/the-corona-virus-disease-covid-19-pandemic-and-its-role-as-an-agent-of-social-change/
