How Covid changed the way we communicate | Economic Times

RT-PCR tests. Flattening the curve. Genome sequencing. Sero surveys. Why, the term ‘Covid-19’ itself. Ever since it first began to ravage the world, the pandemic has given us a whole new way of speaking. Words and phrases once alien to our core vocabulary are now as much part of daily conversations as of scientific discourse. Along with the many tumultuous changes Covid-19 has wrought in our lives, it has altered forever the way we speak.It is no surprise that when the annual Word of the Year lists for 2020 came out, all of them featured such new additions. The Cambridge Dictionary designated ‘quarantine’ as its word of the year. Merriam Webster plumped for ‘pandemic’. And Collins English Dictionary decided on ‘lockdown’. More than halfway into 2021, not much has changed. Those words, or words in their families, continue to dominate our everyday exchanges. It is not just the way we speak now. In these times of confinement, when people see far less of each other than they used to, written communication has become a vital tool to exchange news, views, pleasantries, to maintain contactless contact. This kind of writing has acquired far more significance compared to pre-pandemic times. It has gained new nuances and etiquettes, added layers and meanings. Emails and text messages have morphed into forms — and formulae — unknown before Covid-19 changed our world. The pandemic has given us a new idiom.How many times in the past year have you received an email, often from a stranger or a faint acquaintance, that starts with variations of ‘I hope you, and your family, are doing well and keeping safe’? How often do you remember getting such emails in the days, months, years, prior to that? Signoffs of emails and messages have changed too. Take care. Be well. Stay safe. Even #StaySafe.In these dispiriting times, ending a message with ‘Cheers’ or ‘Regards,’ or even ‘Best/Warm/Kind regards,’ seems inadequate. Compassion and empathy have never mattered more in our lifetimes. Rarely have we wanted fellow human beings, even those we barely know, or know not at all, to, yes, take care, and be well, and stay safe.It is as though by signing off in this way, we are nodding to the fact that we are all in this together, that we are on each other’s side, that we hope, one day, to come out of this together. Ken Tann, alecturer in communications management at the University of Queensland, was quoted by the BBC website as saying, ‘By using these phrases, we’re commiserating over the impact we feel from the pandemic and reminding one another that we’re not alone.’I have not lost anyone dear to me to the virus. In that, I count myself immensely fortunate. But like all of you, I know many people who have. And what happens when I hear such news — on the end of a phone line, or in a message or email? What can one say or write in response?Condolences. Sincere condolences. So sorry to hear that. I am sorry for your loss. Shocked beyond words. Speechless.But those old responses seem to fall short in our current times. They read like clichés. What can one say that is not trite? We try to semaphore our sympathy and drown in inanities instead. The signifier seems puny beside the signified. It is as though the scale of the catastrophe has robbed language of its emotional charge. It has made good intentions, expressed through language, collapse into banalities.Covid-19 has bequeathed us a new way of communicating. But language, as we know it, fails in the face of the havoc it has wrought. Our lexicon has not evolved enough to deal in the currency of genuine commiseration while responding to bad news. Still unsure and awkward, perhaps we will find a way by the time we emerge on the other side.