Impact of the pandemic on lifestyle components of resource-rich citizens

Abstract

The article describes impact of the pandemic spread, the regime of self-isolation and social distancing on certain lifestyle components of resource-rich Russians living in big cities. The presented results are based on a series of specially held in-depth interviews. The lifestyle was considered in terms of such components as: communication practices, consumer practices, leisure and recreation, vacation. In addition, general assessments of the period since the beginning of the pandemic spread were identified in terms of changes in attitudes towards health, plans for the future, and the government's influence on preventing development of crisis processes. The conducted interviews allow us to draw preliminary conclusions that the introduced regime of self-isolation and social distancing had a rather serious impact on such components of lifestyle as the forms of communication practices in everyday life; leisure and recreation; vacation planning; health-preserving behavior. The numerous problems that the respondents faced as the result of the introduction of anti-epidemiological measures, inevitably caused the growth of negative moods, the intensification of existential fears because of the uncertainty of the situation development in the future. At the same time, the crisis contributed to emergence of new opportunities associated with active development of information technologies, which are among the most important factors in the transformation of the old way of life. If respondents, who are employees at some companies, are more likely to take wait-and-see attitude to the pandemic-related changes, but those respondents, who are entrepreneurs or self-employed, have shown a more active reaction to the changes by improving their business models and diversification of their activities.