I won’t waste your time by explaining what the Coronavirus is to you because everyone has had enough of that. What I want to talk about in this blog is how the Coronavirus has given media a whole new meaning and purpose.
We are being asked to remain home and social distance ourselves from friends, family members, acquaintances, enemies, and everyone really. By staying home we are reducing the risk of spreading the virus, saving lives and reducing the stress on the NHS. For some people, this isn’t so hard, for the average introvert does this on a day to day basis.
For others however, this lock-down has caused chaos. Businesses are being forced to shut, pubs, cafes, schools everything that is non-essential has closed. For the first time in history GCSE’s and A levels have been cancelled, university courses are moving their exams to online, whole office teams are working from home and Coop are only letting you buy one loaf of bread at a time. Without media the world would be on pause.
With access to platforms like Zoom, Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts companies are able to keep connected with their employees so business can carry on as usual. University lectures and school lessons are being conducted online using media platforms like these. Without media the whole world would come to a halt. Companies would go bust, people would lose their jobs, students would be roaming the streets with nothing to do, it would be chaos.
The ability to use social media provides people a means of communication with their loved ones, this will make it easier to isolate from them and reduce the amount of people who are still not listening to the government advice and travelling to see people.
Being in isolation can get incredibly lonely. The use of social media platforms like Facebook, Skype, Snapchat and WhatsApp are now more important than ever. We are being asked to not see our friends/boyfriends/girlfriends/family for the foreseeable future, we need social media to keep virtually connected to them.
Whilst some of us are lucky to be living with family or friends, others live on their own or are essential workers so therefore choose to isolate alone. This will be an incredibly lonely time for them, so the presence of social media is vital to allow them to still feel connected with the real world.
Apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Now TV will all be benefiting from this pandemic, since people are bored and have nothing to do. My friends asked me to re-download the app House Party which I haven’t used since I was at school. During this crisis House Party seems to have made a come back, it describes itself as a “face to dace social network”. Basically a group FaceTime that you can play games on.
Overall, during this pandemic I would be lost without social media, what do you think?
Could you go through this without any form of media?
Rach's English Language and New Media Blog 