USE Assistant District Attorney Terri Schultz has a mandatory temperature check before entering the Butler County Government Center.

The “new normal”… it's an expression people have tossed about since the very first wave of coronavirus-related lifestyle restrictions.

Working and socializing from a distance has meant internet shopping, chatting, virtual learning, medical appointments, meetings … well, all things internet.

But how many of these adaptations are the “temporary new” and how many will stick?

“It's far too early to say,” said Dave Wittmann, vice president of cable marketing at Armstrong, where broadband usage doubled in a matter of weeks.

Wittmann said the company adapted to the usage uptick and all regulations on a “daily, sometimes hourly basis,” but was fortunate that it was already in a growth mode.

The usage trend, Wittman said, changed from peaking at evening hours with prime time at 8 p.m., when most people would be home from a day job.

Now, Wittman said, usage peaks by lunchtime and stays active until bedtime.

The new normal could also change how we visit the doctor.

At Butler Health System, ongoing investments into telehealth not only proved a valuable asset for measures related to the coronavirus, but also demonstrated that it has a prominent future in medicine.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appeared in Sunday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.

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