Global Social Opportunity in a Crisis

Many of us are suddenly spending even more time online together for both work and for social reasons, and correspondingly less time in close physical proximity at various venues and establishments, due of course to the restrictions forced by COVID-19. I have to look to the positives in this situation, and an effect which is itself a phenomenon for the history blogs. One of the wonderful positive effects that I've seen is that distant old friends and colleagues in lands as far away for me here in BC as Finland and Japan, and even some relatives, who I seldom get around to spending time with in normal circumstances, have been reaching out to say hello and to catch up. I think the situation presents an opportunity for us all to become closer and more cooperative as a society, and as a global community, despite the enforced physical separation. The increase in online communication also provides potential ways to reduce the stress that inevitably accompanies a pandemic or other large scale disaster, as well as a way to check in with the more vulnerable people among us and offer them what support we can, even when we cannot so easily lend a physical helping hand for obvious reasons. Many recent articles have noted not only physical health challenges, but also psychological ones.

With this in mind, I’d encourage you all to consider what steps you can take to reach out electronically to communicate and share with others, especially the most vulnerable among us. Examples might be:

• simple outreach to someone you haven’t talked to in ages -especially elderly, and by whatever physically -separated means they know -even a phone call

• shared online gatherings and events

  • shared beverages - “wine o’clock” such as we have done recently with our good friends Dre and Danielle!

  • music nights and music collaboration online

  • shared exercise sessions

• instruction to the less technically adept, to enable their participation. This might seem tough to do without physical presence, but here even a phone call might be enough to talk through setup of certain online services, and desktop sharing capabilities (with appropriate security) can be very useful

• regular check-ins online with known vulnerable folk

• for businesses, outreach to more distant and remote customers, especially after a sale, to get to know them better

Common supporting platforms for making this happen, that most of you will know, include Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams/Skype, Facebook, and even email and phone.

These difficult times will pass eventually, and here we have an opportunity to come out at the end as a more closely connected global community. As Mark Knopfler put so well to music, there will be sunshine after rain. In the mean time, stay healthy, but do take the trouble to reach out online.