Technology During COVID: Opportunities and Divisions
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on what our work, personal, and social lives look like. I believe that technology has met this moment with amazing success. As the cliche suggests, necessity has been the mother of invention with innovative implementations across all facets of life, education, and commerce.
The expansion of online learning and remote work has forced most people to engage in modern virtual collaborative platforms and those who may have previously pushed back against the incorporation of technology into their day to day lives have found themselves without alternatives. The adoption of digital technology by some researchers’ estimations have progressed five years during just the first few months of the pandemic. Most industries have seen huge increases in remote work and have found successes and opportunities in this new model.
In the education sector, there has already been expansion into the online realm, but the pandemic has necessitated a more rapid, greater, expansion than previously expected. Many experts have assumed that this change was overdue in part because of the aging business models specifically of the higher education market.
Unfortunately, all this innovation and progression has also highlighted the divisions in our society that had previously been hidden. This “digital divide” has become more apparent as those without access to high-speed internet access or the technology to utilize it have been excluded and left without access to retailers, healthcare, education, and other necessary resources that were forced online due to the pandemic.
While our country and the world have shown what’s possible with technology, it’s also exposed the inherent vulnerability of our divided society. In the United States, the internet is not treated as a public utility and Microsoft estimates that nearly 163 million people are not able to access it at broadband speeds. This division not only creates greater class divisions but stifles economic and innovative growth. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has proven to be a force to be up to the challenge of changing how we envision work, play, education, and many other aspects of our lives, but without equitable access, we will continue to leave many of us behind.