Has ‘the new normal’ become the most overused phrase in the English language thanks to Covid-19? It has competition: ‘doomscrolling’, ‘you’re on mute’ and, more recently, ‘work event’ should all be in with a shout, but our first nominee has that little bit extra.
Those other three can all actually refer to something: respectively, social media, teleconferences and cake-led ambushes. ‘New normal’ is sometimes so completely void of meaning yet at others so packed as to be beyond comprehension.
This is not just linguistic snark. This problem of definition is already having an economic and technological impact, particularly when it comes to advances in and the adoption of techniques around data science and artificial intelligence.
Determining what exactly the new normal means is increasingly likely to require the use of data – and AI-based techniques. And the task may be so broad that it also demands more collaborative models for research and analysis.
On...