The "Remote Control Life" Brought by COVID-19 Exploring Its Essence

Even when physically apart, skillfully using technology can make us feel closer than ever before. A slight shift in perspective can create entirely new connections. The new lifestyle emerging in the wake of COVID-19 could be called "Remote Connection Life" (Remote Connection Life). Remote Connection Life is Remote Communication Life, and it also creates Remote Comfortable Life. A new series will soon begin, where a magazine editor-in-chief and Dentsu Inc. creators will jointly explore the "future vision" of this lifestyle of staying connected while physically apart.

Ahead of the series launch, we spoke with Mr. Tomohiro Nozawa (1CRP Bureau), the project lead.

The "Future Vision of Lifestyle" Beyond Our Casual Daily Lives

How will the novel coronavirus impact our lives? How will the world change in the future due to the novel coronavirus? How many times have we seen such opening lines in articles over the past few months?

Countless research reports and analyses on the post-COVID era and living with COVID have flooded the world, exploring topics like technological innovations such as AI and shifts in young people's mindsets. While information abounds, I feel there's a dearth of content directly addressing how our daily lives will actually change – the very essence of "how we live."

This isn't about exaggerating the future brought by AI or 5G, nor is it about reading global trends to stoke fear. I believe predicting the subtle changes likely to occur in our unassuming daily lives is far from insignificant. It's precisely within these minor shifts hidden in our routines that major business opportunities lie. It seems to me that the signs of profoundly changing times are found in the daily shifts of our hearts.

We listened to stories from magazine editors and distilled them into episodes.

Our team tentatively named this new lifestyle "Remote Control Life." The "Remote" part, of course, comes from "remote." The "Control" part incorporates concepts like connection, communication, and comfort – new lifestyle images we envision expanding through remote living.

In creating this "Future Map of Lifestyles," our team plans to take on three challenges.

First, we will draw on the wisdom of magazine editors-in-chief who constantly observe the "present." We plan to engage with all 10 publications—each essential for discussing lifestyle—and ask these busy editors to share their unique perspectives on what has changed and what remains unchanged since the onset of COVID-19.

Second, using the insights from the editors as a foundation, we will expand our imagination to simulate the future just a few months ahead. As a team, we will extract various keywords and work to create concrete, easy-to-understand episodes.

The keyword is "Staying connected while apart."

Third, we will name a potential "new lifestyle" emerging from this era. This is the concept we introduced earlier: "Remote Connection Life" (Remote Connection Life).

A new lifestyle of "connecting while apart." Could there be a name that symbolizes both our present and future lives, while also serving as a guiding principle for where we're headed? Even as "STAY HOME" is emphasized, there are many new ways to communicate and enjoy life. This word came to mind from the many hints we gathered while speaking with the editors-in-chief.

The relationship between "physical distance," "technology," and "the heart." The "new connections" and "excitement" born from a "shift in perspective." At the heart of this new lifestyle, I believe, lies people's desire to "stay connected even while apart."

Over the next ten installments, we'll present "Remote Control Life" – a future lifestyle blueprint co-created with our editors. We hope you enjoy it.

Discover Japan Editor-in-Chief Takahashi, who kindly participated in our remote interview. (Bottom row: Members of Dentsu Inc.'s "Remote Control Life" team)

[Series Schedule]

▶︎vol.1 Editor-in-Chief Toshihiro Takahashi of "Discover Japan"
　From now on, "tourism personalities" will draw people more than "tourist spots"

▶︎vol.2 Editor-in-Chief Keiko Katagiri of "AERA"
　The New Power of Minority Groups Revealed Through Remote Work (tentative)

▶︎vol.3 "VERY" Editor-in-Chief Asako Imao
New Family Connections Born from "New Schedules" (tentative)

▶︎vol.4 "SPA!" Editor-in-Chief Takashi Inukai
From "Side Jobs" to "Multiple Careers." And Then to "Fortune-Building Careers" (tentative)

▶︎vol.5 "WIRED" Editor-in-Chief Michiaki Matsushima
　New Relationships Between "Places" and "People" Enabled by Multiple "Realities" (tentative)

 

We have already completed interviews with Editor-in-Chief Hiromi Mitani of "Nikkei TRENDY," Editor-in-Chief Zenta Nishida of "BRUTUS," Editor-in-Chief Masaharu Fujiyoshi of "Forbes JAPAN," Editor-in-Chief Atsuo Matsumaru of "Weekly Playboy," and Editor-in-Chief Asako Kitawaki of "anan." Please look forward to them.

[From the "Remote Control Life" Team]

How will the novel coronavirus change our lifestyles? ─── We aim to observe the subtle shifts in daily life and the subtle changes in people's hearts, predict the "new normal" unfolding around us, and strive to create new value. In this new series, we plan to explore these possibilities through the lens of "Remote Control Life."