On a cold winter morning, traveling alone from Singapore to Chandigarh, I had a peculiar encounter. I say peculiar since it happened in 2020, in the era of technology and digitalization. I was flabbergasted to find NO INTERNET connection on my phone!!
My sleep-filled eyes were wide open. The only thought in my mind was “How to connect with family?”. I hurdled across the airport asking for help. Being new to Delhi, I was too skeptical to even step outside the airport without an internet connection. After running around for 1 hour, I somehow managed to connect to the airport Wi-Fi.
TING, TING, TING!! Came in the notifications. Literally 30+ calls and messages from the family. Clearly, everyone was panicked.
On my flight from Delhi to Chandigarh, there was only one question in my mind “How did people travel when there was no internet?”
Have you ever thought about it?
In today’s world, when everything revolves around phones and the internet, it becomes frightening if we lose the connection. Obviously, the pre-internet days had their own advantages like get-togethers, writing letters to your loved ones, etc.
But what about today?
Earlier this year, with the declaration of the global Coronavirus pandemic, almost the whole world went into lockdown. With the extending lockdown, we can say that the virus has changed the way we look at the Internet.
Connecting with loved ones
With the social distancing norms coming in, people are using social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom to connect with family and friends. We now see gatherings like weddings, birthday parties, get-togethers happening on Zoom calls. Altogether, humans are still finding out ways to connect.
Working from Home
With the extending lockdown, every person is facing equally tough choices. With the start of this pandemic, we saw many major businesses losing their consumer footfalls, revenues, and many smaller ones even crumbling down. Consequently, the internet proved itself as a savior and we celebrated the change in the way it helped the businesses emerge.
Online courses
Growing up, had we ever thought of our education system being online? With apps like Zoom, Microsoft teams, Google hangouts, etc. it was made possible.
Also, with growing restrictions on public gatherings, people also tried to refresh themselves with online streaming options like Netflix, Amazon, YouTube. Lucky enough not to miss the latest releases during this pandemic!
Managing essentials
With the increase in the lockdown phases, we saw our E-commerce industry growing. From providing essentials at a quicker pace to its consumers, the E-commerce industry could be seen promoting both the consumers and the sellers. Sellers not only found a wider base of customers to sell out their products to but have also enhanced their products according to the customer requirements.
Medical help
The internet has opened up the world of medicines. The modern high-tech medical aids, when connected to the internet help collect important data, enables remote care, provide extra knowledge of symptoms, their treatments, and many more.
To sum up, we can say that if the internet is used to the best, it can help people stay connected and learn many new things. Also, it is for us to decide how to use technology for our betterment. If we are enjoying what the internet is offering, we should also be aware of its potential risks.
