Oh, how the tables have turned; COVID-19 or most commonly known as the coronavirus has brought many changes to not only my daily life, but everyone’s life in this terrified world. The virus has had a colossal effect on technology.
Before this unexpected pandemic occurred, I believe technology, especially social media, had gotten a “bad rep” in the eyes of older generations (Baby Boomers and Gen X). These generations looked down upon my generation (Gen Z) and the millennials with the fact that we have grown up with the evolution of technology. The older generations put us into a box and labeled us all disrespectful by a few peoples’ actions on the internet. Now, while we are all forced to stay home and rely on technology, these older generations don’t know how to use it and are looking toward the people that they thought of less for help!
I find the irony and hypocrisy of the situation both hilarious and ridiculous. My own mother and father are constantly saying that I spend too much time on technology, yet with the outbreak, my mother asks for help almost every day on how to use iMovie or Google Slides. Since she is a preschool teacher, she has had to make videos of herself and send them to her kids, but to me it sometimes feels as if five minutes ago she was just complaining that I’ve been on Netflix too much a day. It is not my fault that there isn’t much else to do, being stuck inside.
Although I will admit my time in front of the TV has gone up an iota, I don’t always have a choice to not be on some type of technology. For example, I am forced to log on for school while on house arrest which is just another effect of this all consuming, disastourious virus. Every week, I receive an assignment from each one of my eight classes (well, technically, seven because my eighth is athletics which just means I have to run everyday). I personally don’t enjoy online classes particularly, because I find my home to be a place of relaxation or calmness; this brings in all of the stress from school into my sanctuary. Even before everything, yes, I had homework most nights which did bring some stress from school to my home, but this is on another level.
It is not just me who has to deal with online school, almost every person that is in school has to take online school/ homeschooling as a result of the virus. People that are in college have got it excruciatingly worse. Harvard, one of the most pristine ivy leagues, kicked out all of the kids that lived on campus and moved to online school. They had to find a place to live or go back home if they even could in just five days. Many other universities followed suit and did the same thing.
Of course, the coronavirus has brought multiple negatives of technology to the surface of my brain such as increasing my screen time and nurturing my laziness ever so lovingly, making it a million times harder to stay active and get in my running. It has also shown the positives of technology that I knew were there and allow other people (older generations) to see the light of the internet. The way it can connect people even when it seems like we’re all alone (#alonetogether), fill time by shrinking boredom and give students like myself a chance to learn as well as suffer.
