Internet will be a digital book for the post-Corona Generation

While Coronavirus is not first to lock-down the world, it is going down in history as one of the largest. People will remember how they spent time playing with family, working from home, and clapping for social workers. But the one thing that will remain for time immemorial, is how we dealt with it. Even after we are not there to say the stories; in the form of - the internet.

We know very less about how our ancestors coped with the plague or the outbreak of cholera while staying inside. Us, on the other hand, we have created a world of memes, videos of us playing or working and snaps of our daily routine. The future generations to come, will not only witness celebrity task, but they will know the normal public, too.

Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the Plague outbreak, and we know that via the print media- in the forms of his books. We know Henry VIII studied medicine and derived potions for his ailments. But can you believe that the world will remember 2020, as the people lining up to buy liquor in India? Why? Because- memes. There will be Tik-Tok videos of husbands burning up kitchens. Screenshots of kids throwing a football on parents' face during a Zoom Meeting will go viral. The world will go down not only in novels but also in relive-able memories.

Change in Media

During World War 1, the US Government understood the power of Radio. Posters and newspapers were effective during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Today, we rely only on the scholars' researches done during these times to know more about that era. Media was more print and TV and Radio only came in the late 19th Century. If not for the Diary of Anne Frank, we would only know numerical accounts of the Holocaust.

But now, advertisements are more social media centred, and TV ads are fun ways to sing along the jingles. The coming generation will be able to read our memoirs. The news industry, as revolutionised as it is, on the internet, will serve the source of every bit of present's history.

More things to do

With all the time in the world, we have more time together with families. We sit back and enjoy watching movies and playing Ludo. We have videos of karaoking and telling the world how much we admire the Professor from Money Heist. This lockdown has provided us with the opportunity to binge-watching shows (on the internet) or connecting with extended family or friends and total strangers on video calls (on the internet).

Many people have even taken to YouTube to teach the ancient arts that we thought we had lost. From Blue pottery to decrypting Rongorongo, the internet served as a digital book.

Internet providing learning platform

If we read back to any of the previous pandemics, the children have suffered the most. Schools wouldn't re-open and the syllabus or course would suffer. Today, we learn from Edtech apps. The future generation will know our hard work. They will open e-libraries, go through assignments of their ancestors and know the time was hard.

The next generation will also build future working-from-platforms to suit their needs better. We learnt how to party at home with Houseparty, and they will learn from our mistakes. They will rely more and more on technology and the internet will serve to help them. Not just from the winners' point of view, but the people who are affected.

Who said the history is written by winners? The internet certainly will prove them wrong!