It was in February 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) was quick to declare it a pandemic. One of the most contagious viruses in the history of mankind, the COVID-19 spread like wildfire. The magnitude of devastation caused by the pandemic was unlike anything the world had seen.
Since the world knew very little about this new enemy, experts suggested that the best way to weather the storm was to limit the physical interaction between humans. Handshakes, hugs, and other ways of greetings involving physical contact became a big no-no. Everyone was afraid of the virus because no one knew the cure for it and people were dying. Everything changed after the pandemic.
This new reality turned the world upside down. The world had been used to humans coming together and getting jobs done, but this new normal posed new questions to people everywhere. If humans can’t meet, how are they supposed to perform the functions that need them to collaborate with other humans? How would businesses, whether big, medium, or small, work? What would be the future of jobs? While there were no definitive answers to these questions, there was one thing that had some of the answers: the internet.
Role of the Internet in the Pandemic
The internet has been around for nearly four decades now but the new realities of the world further brought it to the centre of attention of people all around the world. There is no doubt about the fact that humans have suffered on a huge scale due to the pandemic but it is safe to say that the devastation would have been greater than this had it not been for the internet.
Overnight, the world had to adapt to the new normal and start to perform most of the functions online. Some even believe that the pandemic has changed the way the world works permanently and that working online is the future of every sector, including services, education, corporate, governance, and even health care in some cases.
COVID Effects on Workers and Internet Role
Since governments, in the face of this emergency, were forced to direct most of their resources to healthcare, they couldn’t invest as much in other sectors. This certainly meant a loss of jobs at an unprecedented scale. However, this crisis was mitigated to a great extent by the internet.
While a lot of jobs involving the physical presence of humans took a hit, others that only involved pens, paper, and the sharing of ideas were saved by the internet. Working from home, zoom meetings, the exchange of important documents through email, and WhatsApp provided an alternative to people actually going to offices and sitting close to each other. In such a situation, internet companies like Spectrum offered economic plans to millions of people as they know that people are on a low budget and the internet is now a necessity, and they still offer high-speed internet at an economic rate to their customers.
As the pandemic is still not over and many people are on a low budget, companies like Spectrum still offer their customers cost-effective plans with very good speeds and features. They even offer an assist plan to the people who are on low income. There are some requirements and if you qualify, you can get the assist plan at a very economic price. You can visit Spectrum’s website to read more about the plans.
COVID Effects on Education and Internet Role
The education sector was probably the biggest beneficiary of the internet during the pandemic. Schools, colleges, and universities are some of the most crowded places and can serve as COVID hotspots.
Online classes enabled students to continue their learning without risking their lives. The use of the internet also introduced a huge number of students to new avenues of learning by diversifying the process. In addition to this, online learning has helped students, their parents, institutions, and states to cut the costs they incur for conventional learning.
COVID Effects on Businesses and Internet Role
There is no denying the fact that the pandemic has cost businesses, especially small and medium businesses, the most. But imagine what things would have been like had it not been for the internet. The last year saw an unprecedented increase in online shopping. This means that millions and millions of businesses not only survived during the pandemic, but countless jobs associated with those businesses were also saved. This has also introduced businesspersons to new ways of doing business.
Online shopping, or simply the internet, helps decrease the capital required for doing business and gives new businesspeople access to greater markets with less money spent. This is the very reason for the recent surge in the number of entrepreneurs entering markets of all kinds.
Summing It Up
The health catastrophe that is the COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly one of the greatest in human history and there can be no alternative for the loss of lives that this pandemic caused. However, we need to be thankful for the fact that the world has the internet. Had it not been for the internet, we would have still been groping in the dark and trying to find the solutions to some of the most pressing challenges the world faces today.
Image Credits: JÉSHOOTS
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