A virus that is at least not visible to our eyes has conquered the world right now. Wuhan of China was the crib to the COVID 19 virus but nobody knows where its coffin would be. The outbreak of this virus has taught the residents of Earth a huge number of lessons and made them get the use of technology more than ever to fulfill their daily tasks. Today, BuzyFeed is planning to investigate the technological aspects embraced by the world to fulfill the daily tasks during this pandemic situation.
When it comes to shopping there are two types of people. One category enjoys physical shopping, which means, they reach the stores physically, wander here and there and choose what they want. The other category doesn’t reach the locations physically. Instead, they use the internet or other online shopping platforms to order the things they need. This pandemic made everybody use online shopping platforms to safeguard themselves and their loved ones from the virus by maintaining social distance. Statistic records hold evidence that the rate of online shopping and the deliveries done with the help of robots have drastically increased during this vulnerable period. Contactless delivery services are now adopted by companies and restaurants globally to ensure the safety of their clients. China has upgraded this contact-less delivery service to the next level by introducing robot delivery technology where robots are used to deliver the good to the expected destination. Experts have proved that the coins and notes we use to pay may also act as a medium for the propagation of the virus. This is why the concept of digital and contactless payment technologies are now introduced to the world. We can either use our credit/debit cards or our e-wallet to do the necessary payments without touching coins or money notes. Although this technology emerged as a safety measure to follow to get rid of the virus, the World Bank declares that the people who are unbanked would face difficulties in following this technology. Moreover, Internet facility is essential to utilize this technology, so for the ones who don’t have proper internet connection or no internet at all would be in trouble.
As per the views of medical experts, maintaining social distance is much essential to eradicate this virus. Because of this reason, many companies globally have encouraged their employees to stay home and perform company duties. This work from home concept has become the “new normal” now. Technologies including virtual private networks (VPNs), voice over internet protocols (VoIP), virtual meetings, cloud technology, and work collaboration tools are introduced now to perform the tasks more efficiently. Employees also could use virtual backgrounds when they are facing company meetings if they wish to save their privacy. The remote work concept is efficient as the employees are less stressed and can work in flexible schedules. But sometimes they may also face stress conditions due to the loneliness they face. However, the remote working concept is much useful when it comes to eradicating the virus. Distance learning is also another technology trend that was freshly introduced in order to maintain an uninterrupted learning environment for school and university students. Technologies involved in distant learning are virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing, and artificial-intelligence-enabled robot teachers. Applications such as Zoom, MS Teams, google Meet were are currently used by students and teachers to share learning materials.
Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
Finally, the concept of Telehealth also can be introduced as a new technology trend that emerged during this pandemic situation. Telehealth will help you to get primary care for your illnesses without attending a hospital. This is basically designed to save residents from the virus and to avoid them visiting hospitals for mild sicknesses. Chatbots are introduced to do the initial diagnosis process based on the symptoms of patients. So these are some of the technologies which are used by the world to fulfill their tasks without being interrupted by the virus.
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