A Battle of Time: Coronavirus And Technology

This is a guest post by our writing competition winner Rafid Baqer, a fourth-year dentistry student at the University of Babylon.

Rafid enjoys writing out his ideas and thoughts and sharing them with his friends. This is his first published article.

Read another winner’s article here.

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Everything suddenly changed. Some people found themselves without anything to do; it was like getting stuck at a red light, forever. Others don’t even have the time to talk to their families because they are on the frontlines fighting the virus. This situation has made us feel like life has stopped. Students all over the world are impacted since most schools, colleges and institutions are closed.

At a time when the world is suffering from Coronavirus and people are committed to self-quarantine, why don’t we use our time judiciously?

The Larger Role of Technology

We are now dependent on technology and the internet to do our jobs, go to school and socialise. It has also become our primary source of entertainment. For health providers facing complicated and unprecedented situations, technology is there for them. Recently, robots were used in China to do several tasks such as making and delivering food to infected people, disinfecting, monitoring, diagnosis, treatment of people, and delivering medications and samples for laboratory tests. China is not the only country to make use of robots to deal with this epidemic. 

Furthermore, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple together with small startups, are handling most of their business online, from home. In the future, it is possible that companies may consider permanently asking their employees to work from home to reduce the costs of renting an office and overhead, leading to financial benefits.

The Magic Solution

Initially, people thought we were losing production time and money due to this pandemic. However, they soon realised that it was the same situation for everyone. We all want things to go back to normal quickly, but this may not happen as we expect it to. In such a situation we must take advantage of two golden resources:

1. Accessibility

Online courses, workshops, and resources on different websites are now free or have huge discounts (such as Udemy, Coursera and FutureLearn). Also, many trainers and lecturers have volunteered to share their knowledge and train others for free. Technology can bring the whole world into the palm of your hands. Wherever you are you can workout, study, play music, learn, attend meetings, or even work while you are having a snack in bed. With the ease of the internet and social media, you can attend social events like live concerts as well. You can even get a diagnosis from your doctor without even visiting a clinic. 

2. Time

Whether you are working from home as an employee, a freelancer or a student, you will have free time at your disposal. Time is the most valued currency in our short lives. Sometimes it is really hard to find free time in your schedule to do something new, learn or try new stuff. Looking at the positive side of this pandemic – you have all the time you need. In fact, you have even more time than you need.

Final words

We always complain about the time and effort that it takes to improve ourselves to be more productive. ​But today, we have all the time to do what we want. Also, we have the accessibility and all the tools that we need to learn and improve ourselves. We must decide what to do with this. Do we relax or sail ahead on the ship of technology?

Tell us what you have learned with the help of technology during quarantine so far. Have you sailed yet, or not?