For several weeks I have been saying that our world is going to change significantly but I didn’t know how. This is the first article I’ve seen that starts to look at just how. Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently. Here’s How. I especially like the ideas around technology:
” use our time with our devices to rethink the kinds of community we can create through them … Cello master Yo-Yo Ma posts a daily live concert of a song that sustains him. Broadway diva Laura Benanti invites performers from high school musicals who are not going to put on those shows to send their performances to her. Entrepreneurs offer time to listen to pitches. Master yoga instructors teach free classes… together alone.”
” VR allows us to have the experiences we want even if we have to be isolated, quarantined or alone. Imagine putting on glasses, and suddenly you are in a classroom or another communal setting, or even a positive psychology intervention.”
Public libraries are now redefining their digital branches, collections, programs and services, for example, the Edmonton Public Library (hope to have a link to CTV Calgary coverage soon), with such great things as: armchair bird watching, virtual zoo safaris, aquarium tours as well as museum tours, open-access digital collections which publishers are providing more and more for free (Audible & more), authors reading their works, children’s librarians doing online storytimes, average people sharing their reading of bedtime stories, and so much more!
For years Rebecca and I have talked about change happening when we are uncomfortable, and we certainly are these days. The amount of uncertainty about our future is almost overwhelming, but I hope we can all take the time to build positive scenarios of our future, to look for opportunities created by the “new normal” of our lives. So take care, be safe write down those positive opportunities and scenarios for the future — I’ll be asking you to share them!
