The changes the entire country has undergone recently have been, in a word, unprecedented. The beginning of March saw most of us working to accommodate the upcoming Spring Breaks our children would be taking. There was very little, if anything, to suggest we would be swallowed up in a global pandemic.
Yet, despite the initial shock, most of us are continuing to run our businesses, serve our clients, pay our suppliers, and, more or less, get things done. This would have been unthinkable just twenty years ago. The rapid increases in the sophistication, the availability, and the adaptability of technology since the beginning of this century has made it possible for the economy of the United States to avoid utter collapse during this crisis. Because of the presence of various applications, software, and devices, businesses are serving customers and clients using the internet, streaming applications, and various online pay platforms. An independent coffee shop and roaster, for example, has to close its doors to its walk-in customers, but is still serving them through the internet sales of their whole bean products and other merchandise made available through their website. The integration of a virtual storefront on a website is relatively new, and a feature we now take for granted, but technology like this is saving businesses from bankruptcy.
Similar advancements in technology are facilitating the education of ourselves and our children through elearning and online courses despite the closures of schools and universities. The ways in which an educator can reach, theoretically, any number of students with lessons, homework, and opportunities for discussion is just short of miraculous. As with anything, there are some shortcomings with online education, but these are not sufficient to keep students from progressing appropriately. These shortcomings are now opportunities for the next generation of online education to move beyond what is available today.
Beyond the technology we are touching directly is the infrastructure of technology undergirding everything we are doing. The management of the nation’s electrical grid, which literally powers all of the technology we use, is facilitated by technology we never see. Likewise, the technology within the logistics industry enables our grocery stores to inventory their stock and place orders to suppliers in real time. These orders, then, are filled and on the road in the same day. Because of the unseen infrastructure in just these two segments of the economy, we have had none of the horrible consequences of pandemics seen in previous centuries. Hospitals, emergency management, and local governments have been able to care for and protect people in unprecedented ways, because they have the technology they need to do so.
While everything about this situation is unnerving and frustrating, none of this is as bad as it could have been. The technology we possess has prevented this from turning into an utter catastrophe. Most of us are still able to keep our businesses, care for our families, and do what we can for those, who are suffering losses during this time. Technology has proven necessary to mitigating the ill effects of a crisis and bolstering the necessary actions combatting that crisis. How is technology helping you through this time?
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