It’s pretty amazing how this pandemic has awakened us to the way things are. Almost as if a giant chasm opened up in the earth, a line was drawn down the middle of our society: on one side people, industries, businesses, and spaces that were safe to operate and on the other… ones that were not.
Then a few months in after weeks of lockdowns and other safeguards, the Black Lives Matter movement erupted in protests and dominated news and conversation. Everyone had some reflecting to do and it seems like most people took that opportunity to do so. I thought about my layers of privilege as a straight, white, American man with a middle-class up bringing and career. Try as I may, understanding the experience of others is elusive and I can never fully “get it”.
But a layer of privilege I have also thought about—and appreciated—is that I can safely and effectively work from home on a computer. Thanks to fast internet, a reasonably new computer, a willing employer, and no shortage of communications work, I have been as busy as ever. That’s pretty amazing. I am thankful every single day for the ability to stay at home with my family.
Many are not so lucky. Either they work a hands-on job out in the world or they work in a facility that must (or can’t) operate in-person. Or worse, they have service jobs or tech-based jobs that just aren’t feasible right now. That’s heartbreaking.
While we can grouse about how safeguards and protective measures have affected us, the nature of COVID-19 was nobody’s fault but it has disproportionately had an impact on people whose livelihoods don’t rely on technology. And I have seen first-hand how business owners, workers, teachers, and other essential laborers have adapted with astonishing speed and cunning to make their work safe and to keep bringing us the products and services we need.
Naturally, I am thinking about my chin stroking and musings on this vs. that technology or just the right kind of configuration. They are preferences that affect only my state of mind and I realize that most of that doesn’t matter. But in the run up to the 10th anniversary of The Off Switch, I am remembering how many ideas about presence and connection were actually prescient. Technology has saved me in many ways. It has connected me but it has also kept me apart. While making it possible for me to work and see friends, I long for nothing more than uninterrupted face to face time that’s physical and tactile and blissfully not digital.
I can’t help but to wonder if—as we emerge from this public health crisis—we’ll prioritize time away from the internet and devices, whether that’s in nature or embracing loved ones or undulating together at music venues or parties. It is hard to imagine now, but I long for that sensory experience at an almost cellular level. I am in no rush to socialize for the sake of just doing that, but I do think a reckoning is coming in terms of our physical connection.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
