Tech in the Time of Pandemic…

As we enter the 6th (or more?) month of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more and more apparent to me that we are fortunate to have the tools we do to weather it..

What if this had happened 30 years ago?

I often wonder what it would be like if it was myself, and not my kids, going through this pandemic back in 1990 instead of 2020. Think about everything we have today – mobile phones, FaceTime/Zoom, FaceBook, Snapchat, broadband, etc. – and now imagine trying to deal with what this pandemic without all those tools. Imagine the isolation and lack of contact we would have up and above what we do now. Imagine trying to facilitate a two-way flow of information! (Setting aside, for the minute my privilege at having all of the above today – I know there are many people not fortunate enough to have all of those resources available, but that is another topic for another time.)

In 1990, inbound (to us, outbound to the powers that be) information flow was pretty well established through television, radio, and print media. There were even “phone trees” to do more localized information spreading via the two-way telephone. However, imagine trying to do contact tracing or symptom monitoring with the limitations of the 1990’s. It makes me wonder how we’d survive it with the leadership challenges that we’re facing today. With strong leadership, I know we’d do well, but taking everything we have today and moving it back 30 years, I shudder to think how things would go