Has 2020 Shown That Technology Is The Future of The World?
31st December 2019 was just like any other 31st December Night in Ghana, Africa, and the world at large. In Ghana, 31st December is termed as “Church Reunion” by many people.
This is because it is the day all those who haven’t been to church throughout the year decide to go and thank God for the year that has passed and usher themselves into the new year. In the evening of 31st December, we all went to church or bed anticipating the new year that was coming, 2020.
Just a few weeks after we entered 2020, there was rumour spreading that there is a deadly disease wiping Chinese citizens and those living in China. Initially, we all taught it was just a joke and that it will vanish in a few weeks.
Soon after that, we all heard that the disease has begun spreading to other parts of the world. This was when everyone became alert that the disease is real and that it was killing people.
Somewhere in March, Ghana recorded its first two cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A few days later, the president announced the shutting down of schools and social gatherings in all parts of the country.
During this period, we all taught we were just going to experience this for a few months and then things will get back to normal. But that didn’t happen, as you can see we are still living in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once schools closed and social gatherings were put on hold, the next thing that followed was the shutting down of borders; both sea and land, and the airports. Next, the almighty lockdown was imposed on some parts of the country.
While businesses, schools, companies, churches, and others were closed down, one thing remained active, and that is technology. Below are some of the most common technologies that were used vibrantly throughout 2020:
Online Learning/E-learning
Because students especially those in the tertiary level and private institutions had already paid their school fees before schools were shut down, they all had to migrate to online learning. In the beginning, some schools were finding it difficult to cope but after some time they all picked up.
Some schools already had e-learning systems so they didn’t actually suffer. Also, some schools didn’t have anything like that so they had to build e-learning systems and so they suffered a little.
Through e-learning almost all public and private tertiary institutions were able to finish their syllabus and semester peacefully. This also made parents who were working from home a little bit relieved; all of which wouldn’t have been possible if not for technology.
Remote Working
Similar to the schools, businesses and other companies also had to close their offices and office complexes to reduce the risks to their workers. Once they shut down, they all adapted to the remote working system.
With remote working, workers can do the normal work they would have done if they were at the office. This time around, with little or no supervision and also without risking the lives of themselves or their loved ones.
Conferences are now done on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and other video conferencing tools. Even with these tools, workers can be working and having the meeting at the same time; unlike the physical working that they would have had to move from one location to the other.
E-commerce And Courier Services
Shops and malls were only allowing a few buyers at the same time. Even with that, the risk of you contracting the virus was high because you didn’t know who had touched the product before you.
Because of that, everyone migrated to e-commerce and courier services. With the e-commerce and courier services, all you had to do was to order the product and then get it delivered to you at your doorstep.
The courier services were fast, a little bit cheap, and risk-free. Because of this, people didn’t have to risk their lives in long queues just to buy goods.
Facebook Live Church Services
As the Bible says, “the word of God is a lamp to our feet…” therefore, even though there was COVID-19, church services still had to continue. As a result, churches had to adopt the Facebook Live method of having church services.
In terms of payment of offerings and tithes, mobile money and fintech services were used. Thus, pastors just had to prepare their sermon and then share it with their congregation on Facebook using the Facebook Live feature.
Online Blogs And News Portals
Finally, one of the services that were used a lot in 2020 was reading online blogs and news portals. This was as a result of the easy accessibility and the no-risk attached to it.
Unlike the newspapers where they had to buy and read the news that happened the previous day, they were kept updated on the news portal and the online blogs. Although this caused financial loss to some of the newspaper agencies, they all migrated to the online services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want you to take a little time and reflect on the services I have listed above and ask yourself whether life in the pandemic would have been or worse without these technologies.
After thinking about it, you will notice that without these technologies, life in the pandemic would have been very worse. Therefore 2020 has revealed to us that, technology is indeed the future of the world.
