The connection of technology
In the last few months, the majority of the world has had to cope with a completely new set of circumstances, including restrictions on leaving homes and not being able to visit or meet up with people from different households. This has meant that many people have not been able to see their friends and family in person for a long time. Thankfully, with the way technology is nowadays, this hasn’t meant a complete loss of contact from the people we hold dearly in our lives.
I don’t think that anyone can dispute that technology has become more important in our lives than ever before. Many people have needed internet connections, laptops, and the ability to have meetings online through a variety of different programmes, and that’s just if they’re working from home. The ability to video call has enabled people not only to be able to see their colleagues, but also to see family members and friends. Lots of people had already used this type of technology before the lockdown, but many others have now been able to see the benefits and learn that even though you can’t always see someone in the flesh, they are never truly far away.
So why is communication in this way important? They say that communication in a relationship is the key to keeping it healthy, but communication in everyday life is also one of the important ways in helping and improving how we our feeling, and it is good for our overall mental health. Face-to-face communication is usually preferred by many, but the fact that we have an alternative now, via video calling, is such a benefit, and I am sure it has been an extreme comfort to people over the past few months. Communication in general is a good thing, but talking about how you are feeling can help people stay in good mental health. Being able to see someone is also a way of checking how they are; people may be able to sound OK on a phone call, but being able to see their face may show a different story.
Seeing people via a video call can also allow for the people included to feel more involved in the call. Being able to share screens and perhaps playing games and doing quizzes can add content to a general group chat, and allow the communication to go beyond a quick catch up. The advancement of technology in the last fifteen years is incredible, and I often wonder how lockdown would have gone for many people had it of happened without the technology we have now. People living alone, for example, have the ability to now connect with others, but without this, such connections would not have been possible, apart from by using a telephone and speaking to one person at a time.
I, like many people a couple of months ago, had never been part of a video call before, but it is something I know I will carry on using in the future. I think the lockdown, and global pandemic in general, will have many lasting effects on people, but from all of this some different long-lasting changes will also be made. As well as allowing many people to take a step back and realise what is important in their lives, it may also have also allowed people to realise that they are never truly alone now. Just because you may not be able to physically see loved ones doesn’t mean they are not at the end of a click of a button. Perhaps a positive thing to come out of this horrible situation the world has had to go through is the realisation that we are now never truly alone, as long as we have the technological capabilities to not be.
Sarah Keeping MBPsS MSc PgDip GDip BA (Hons) Cert HE
Follow Sarah on twitter at @keepingapproach
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