We’ve moved much of life online
Technology has become a positive force, helping us to stay connected to one another in so many ways.
Hands up if you’d heard of Zoom back in January? There’s unlikely to be a forest of arms waving in the air. Yet, a few weeks into lockdown, many of us were using it as if it had been in our lives for many years. Made for business meetings, it’s proved far more fun for hosting lockdown quiz nights, birthday parties for kids, and sharing a virtual cup of tea with self-isolating loved ones.
Opening the door to these online meet-ups is just one way that, almost overnight, our society leapfrogged the fear, lack of confidence and plain disinterest in tech that may have stopped some of us embracing it before. Instead, left with little choice, we just got on with it.
‘People have almost been forced to try something they might have been nervous about trying previously,’ says Professor Kerensa Jennings, BT’S group director of digital impact. ‘They have discovered different ways of doing and learning things.’
So much of what we once did offline has now been achievable through our devices. Online grocery sales have, unsurprisingly, soared, and one in seven Brits have newly subscribed to a video streaming service.
Online yoga guru Adriene Mishler, with more than 7m subscribers, has been billed the ‘patron saint of lockdown’, while Joe Wicks became the nation’s PE teacher. The Zoom app was downloaded 2.13m times around the world on 23 March, the day UK lockdown was announced, and downloads of mental health apps also jumped almost a third as the crisis took hold.
‘We are lucky when it comes to online access,’ says Professor Jennings. ‘Even five years ago, a lot of the tech allowing the world to carry on may not have existed or been anywhere near as good. It has helped people stay together and feel a sense of belonging. The interesting part is that tech is not the thing they are learning. Rather, tech is the enabler that allows these experiences to happen. The more confident people are about using technology, the more they’re able to do in their lives. Tech is the wrapper. Everything else is what makes us human.’
Indeed, one of the main motivators for adopting new technology has been keeping in touch with those we love. While we may use these apps and services less as the restrictions are loosened, there is little doubt that some of these arrivals are here to stay.
‘We have been hearing magical stories of people having their first video call,’ says Professor Jennings. ‘And, although it had never entered my head before to have online drinks with a friend living abroad, that now makes a lot of sense. While we are craving human contact, that will undoubtedly resume and be appreciated more than ever. But those online connections will also endure long after life has returned to normal.’
Only 9% of people want to go back to the way we lived before lockdown*