March 13th, 2020 will live in history as the day the world shut down (Safi 2020). The digital world lit up with panic as the coronavirus was declared a national emergency in the United States. Some people are out of jobs and concerned about the future this virus will bring to us while others live their lives unaffected by the virus. The narrative is given by social media and the one given by our communities and homes can have some gaping differences. While one person may be trying to find online work on account of an office closing another next door may be working overtime at a hospital and be exhausted.
I have seen some extremely concerned about the conditions we are living in and others that could not be bothered by it. Some will not engage in physical contact with family or neighbors and some are have no qualms with continuing it. Still, with living in cabin mode, are we now in an age where we must be digitally literate. A few years ago a meme came out called “learn to code”, it was a literal suggestion to miners who were put out of work and needed to find another field and a satiric remark to the journalists who originally posted it after losing their jobs (McHugh 2019). With the quarantine of the Coronavirus, we really must “learn to code” or in this case be digitally literate.
Technology such as VR, AI, and AR I think are becoming a necessity amongst this pandemic. To stay marketable differing fields must become digitally literate. My mother is a teaching and practicing music therapist and she is partaking in a webinar that teaches how to offer services online in order to continue working at nursing homes for the time being. My current position at work is being moved to an online setting in order to continue despite the isolation required of us.
These technologies may play a key role in treating people. This gives modern medicine a sharper edge on the diagnostic aspect of understanding diseases through the usage of AI and VR. These technologies make safer conditions for medical professionals and more accurate diagnoses for patients. Recently I have even seen scientific articles speaking about the use of VR in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. This treatment helps those struggling with the disease with facial recognition (Viccaro, Sand, Springer 2019). It gives patients the ability to practice using their minds and maintain a stable memory for as long as possible instead of being overtaken by it immediately. AI and VR are no longer stereotypes we see in science fiction movies, but healers in our medical facilities.
Technology provides us a way to maintain life in these anxiety-inducing times, and maintain our lives. The fact that the American middle class can still work online instead of being put out of work is beneficial to many homes. We are now able to have an opportunity at a continuous income on account of the technology that has been given to us. When it comes to classrooms, the idea of online schooling may be the norm in the next fifty years. Statistics state that most students will attend classes online and the in-classroom university setting will belong only to the upper class. Can this recent usage of technology within a pandemic be looked at as preparation for the future?
I would also argue that the usage of technology also may reduce the need for travel and carbon emissions. With the need to work from home we have to travel much less and this may be a small step in solving environmental problems. Along with this, we may learn to be confined to small rural and suburban communities again. Something that my generation is drastically missing. By being confined to one area we are forced to spend time with the people we are with, and commune with our families and friends. This is the opposite effect of what is usually argued for technology. We may be allowed both a more comfortable, pragmatic, and environmentally aware life due to our current situation and dependence on technology. While these weeks have been dark, there is light at returning to normal. This situation may even lead to a ‘better’ normal.
Literature Cited
McHugh M. 2019 “Learn to Code”: The Meme Attacking Media. The Ringer. [accessed 2020 Mar 22].Available from https://www.theringer.com/tech/2019/1/29/18201695/learn-to-code-twitter-abuse-buzzfeed-journalists
Safi M. 2020. Coronavirus: the week the world shut down. The Guardian. [accessed 2020 Mar 22]. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/20/coronavirus-the-week-the-world-shut-down
Viccaro E, Sands E, Springer C. 2019 Spaced Retrieval Using Static and Dynamic Images to Improve Face–Name Recognition: Alzheimers Dementia and Vascular Dementia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 28(3):1184–1197.
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