Lockdown Blues And The Definition Of Essential Services

The digital rapture may just have taken place, but it is possible that despite the situation that the world is currently facing, most may not realize that the world as we know it may never be the same again. I have never seen anything that people felt slow to embrace like technology-related things. There may have been many reasons ranging from man-machine interactions that make certain people shy away from the use of computers, or even for religious reasons as described in this study that claims that the use of the internet has caused people to abandon their faith.  it could be due to some other external influence. For whatever reason, that one may think the reason for the slow embrace of technology, it appears that technology continues to surge ahead; as seen by the daily release of new apps with claims to work modern miracles that reduce our daily tasks. The word “rapture” is synonymous with Christian teachings that purport that people will suddenly disappear from the earth, and people who do not qualify for this rapture will be left behind. With the multiplicity of belief systems out there, these claims may or may not be disputed, but one thing seems to be constant; for as many that refuse to embrace new technology as the world continues to change, digital raptures continue to take place that will continue to leave people who refuse to adapt to these new technologies behind.

Some countries may feel the pinch of this digital rapture more than others. In The United States, technologies exist that you may never find in developing countries. In West Africa, environmental optics are almost the same as you would find in the US. From huge shopping malls, international airports, movie theaters, large stadiums, and more infrastructure that would make for a modern city. A popular company called Jumia technologies, which has been described as the Amazon of Africa remains in business. But it is just in recent times that they began to implement online payment systems. For an exceptionally long time, they had transacted business where the customer would have to pay on delivery. Developing countries may look good from an aerial shot, but they suffer infrastructural problems like bad roads and inconsistent power supply; these sometimes impede effective and timely delivery for customers, hence a lack of trust in online payments and a preference to pay on delivery. If infrastructural issues that would facilitate good online delivery systems are not addressed, adopting an online culture will be slow, and this poses a risk in the event of a global digital rapture.

But the sign of an impending digital rapture is here, and no other time has defined it better than the entrance of COVID 19. Like a thief in the night and without warning, the coronavirus came suddenly. As the medical experts and intellectuals on the planet were trying to understand what it was, the first mitigation put in place was to implement social distancing which would eventually lead to lockdowns that would see everyone in this world trapped indoors. This quickly put those businesses without a pre-existing online infrastructure at risk; businesses that solely depended on customers who walk through their doors in order to make sales. The question to ask here is, why is it that some businesses had proper e-commerce infrastructures and others did not? was e-commerce invented in 2020? It still boils down to the slow embrace of technology. Some businesses saw the coming rapture, others felt that it was not necessary because business appeared to be doing well. It is no surprise why most feel that a lockdown would kill the economy, but whose economy? The coming of the coronavirus saw Netflix adding 16 million new subscribers and Amazon hiring more workers to help with the increased demand for packaging and online deliveries because the populace resorted to buying online so that they would not catch the virus in a store. It appears that some sinking boats seem to be fortifying others and keeping them strongly afloat.

Many conspiracy theorists believe that the coronavirus will bring about new world order. It probably will, but not in the way that most of these conspiracy theorists present it. The new world order that is evident is that there will be new ways with which people will live their lives, priorities will change, essential services will be redefined (already has been). Schools were shut and Zoom became the new classroom; there are precipitating debates as to specific college courses that should remain online in a post-COVID-19 era, though there is no promise of permanently abandoning brick-and-mortar learning, the incorporation of technology in learning will probably remain a permanent feature in our educational institutions. One thing for sure is that in capitalist economies, most entrepreneurs will rid themselves of as many brick-and-mortar infrastructures as they can. COVID 19 just revealed to business owners that their workers can work from home. Once an entrepreneur establishes that staff can effectively do their job from home and the bottom line remains unshaken, they will see no justification to pay for office space, there will be no need to pay cleaners, maintenance people, and most especially the bills associated with running these massive office spaces. Twitter Inc recently told its workers that they can work permanently from home, this goes beyond the handwriting on the wall, the wall just received a new coat of paint.

So how does one position himself for safety in these changing times? There are fewer options available apart from that of embracing and learning along with these changing technologies. If a parent’s greatest concern was to raise a child and place that child in a position of financial advantage, then conventional career paths may need to be re-evaluated. We have evolved into a world where people make more money making YouTube videos and playing video games than doctors or lawyers. If passion drives career choices, then there is no problem, but if it is all about financial security, the options available in the evolving digital space appear to be limitless. The coronavirus only showed us that the world may someday be unwilling to accommodate people that are unwilling to learn new methods of doing things using technology. Let us not forget that when the United States government gave its citizens a stimulus check, it was those who filed taxes electronically that received theirs speedily, while those who filed through the mail had to wait for the check to be sent in the mail. The late Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn” and an old friend once said to me that “the most important thing is to first identify what the most important thing is”.