Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how the world works. With the high risks of contamination and quarantine restrictions implemented in virtually all countries, physical connections between countries and even on the scale of one country were extremely severed. Along with that, it led to the unprecedently vast spread and development of digital technologies, at work, in the study, and in everyday life. Its impact was profound and not only harmful, as it may seem. The pandemic, leading to quarantine lockdowns, promoted the development of advanced technologies and implementing them worldwide in healthcare, businesses, education, and people’s everyday lives, thus increasing their digital literacy.
Digital Technologies: An Overview
While the pandemic was devastating for the economy, it also stimulated modern technologies, especially connected with the Internet and remote access. It led to digital technologies in various fields, especially in businesses, education, and healthcare (Vargo et al., 2020). The digitalization of healthcare helps doctors monitor patients with more precision and efficiency and analyze their data much more quickly. On the other hand, it enables patients to access healthcare services rapidly. Education’s digitalization is also essential, as schools and universities are often closed during the quarantine lockdown (Singh, 2021). Digital classrooms allow students, from schools to universities, to be in touch with teachers and obtain knowledge easily. In businesses, those technologies are used in different ways: from social network marketing to various services for data analysis, communication, and other facilities (Priyono et al., 2020). Thus, the impact of the pandemic was quite beneficial: it stimulated a vast development of digital technologies in each area of human life.
Digital technologies in daily life have also become much more widespread. Usage of social networks, which help people to be connected even in case of the lockdown, is not the only case. Big data technologies enable analyzing various data, such as governmental statistics, more precisely, and their results are transparent and easily accessible via the Internet (Vargo et al., 2020). In that way, people can track the spread of coronavirus, for example, and decide how and where there will be maximum safety. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic stimulated the development of delivery services and online retail businesses, which made everyday life much more comfortable.
Digital Technologies in Businesses
Enterprises worldwide have experienced the influence of pandemics, and it was similar to the big and rapid shake-up: they were forced to act quickly and accordingly to a situation. In another case, they were threatened to lose all their funds. Businesses that did not adopt digital technologies for their needs mostly suffered bankruptcy, unable to hold on in the changing world (Priyono et al., 2020). It is especially true in the retail business: as physical stores become less accessible or completely closed during the lockdown, the rent becomes an onerous burden for businesses. Using digital technologies and delivery services, they need to adapt to survive and increase their incomes.
Digital literacy, which means knowing various digital services, from online communications and marketing to data analysis, becomes essential for the modern business world. Those businesses that managed to adopt them are usually better in their fund management, increasing their incomes and successes (Vargo et al., 2020). They use digital technologies to calculate and manage budgets, connect employees, and contact their customers (Priyono et al., 2020). They are also active in social networks, with strategies for promotion and marketing; in addition, their customers often recommend them on their own social networks’ pages. On the contrary, firms with low digital literacy could not digitalize and started to work more efficiently in pandemic conditions.
However, some firms adopted other ways than increasing digitalization to adapt to the pandemic’s restrictions. According to Priyono et al. (2020), there are businesses that have well-established local products and the rich social capital of people who believe in them. They argue that implementing digital technologies very quickly can be dangerous due to the disruptions among the firm’s staff who are not accustomed to them. In general, it is time-consuming to increase digital literacy, and a lack of it can lead to misuse of digital technologies and, consequently, to financial losses (Vargo et al., 2020). Those firms accept product-centered business model, which may seem outdated, but still serves well to them. They are concentrated on manufacturing excellent quality products and selling them to customers. It works exceptionally well on the local scale, on which those small and medium enterprises are usually working. To compensate for the lack of digital literacy, they cooperate with partners who have excellent digital skills (Priyono et al., 2020). Thus, the partnership is another way for companies who are not ready for digitalization to survive the pandemic.
Digital Technologies in Education
While digital classrooms were discussed as the perspective solution for many issues connected with education, such as children’s unwillingness to study, it started to be vastly implemented in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. A digital classroom is a virtual space where students and teachers can easily share their data (Singh, 2021). Teachers send tasks to students, along with learning materials; in addition, their lectures via digital tools such as Zoom can quickly be recorded. Students may see those lectures as often as they need, complete their tasks when needed, and send them in comfortable conditions. In that way, the digitalization of the education sector has many advantages.
They are apparent, but there are disadvantages of digital classrooms that should be addressed too. The first and most important is the possibility of distraction due to many different factors (Singh, 2021). While sitting at home is usually more comfortable than day-to-day going to school, a student may, for example, play games, watch TV, or converse with friends instead of listening to a teacher and doing classwork. Thus, it should be addressed as a problem; it can possibly be solved by increasing the digital literacy of students and making the study process more interesting for them
Digital Technologies in Healthcare
The healthcare sector primarily benefited from digital technologies, as it was directly influenced by a big load of COVID-19 patients. There are various ways health facilities use digital technologies (Vargo et al., 2020). The most frequent usage is the digital communication platforms; many clinics have their smartphone apps, for example. They allow communication with doctors easily to find the necessary doctor, read reviews and leave one after the appointment or medication. Social networks are useful for this purpose, too: along with all other businesses, health facilities use them more and more actively to promote their services and communicate with patients (Priyono et al., 2020). In addition to simple communications, the healthcare sector widely uses big data technologies for patient data analysis, which allows to make medical decisions much more quickly and precisely as they become data-driven.
Conclusion
As one can see, digitalization has changed the world rapidly and influenced all its areas. Businesses started to digitalize themselves worldwide, increasing digital literacy became a top priority, and those who failed to do this either do not survive or must cooperate with other businesses. The education and healthcare sectors also widely used digital technologies, primarily for facilitating communications and data exchange. Those technologies became part of everyday people’s lives, and this trend seems to be only increasing.
References
Priyono, A., Moin, A., & Putri, V. N. A. O. (2020). Identifying digital transformation paths in the business model of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 6(4). Web.
Singh, M. N. (2021). Inroad of digital technology in education: Age of digital classroom. Higher Education for the Future, 8(1), 20–30. Web.
Vargo, D., Zhu, L., Benwell, B., & Yan, Z. (2020). Digital technology use during COVID ‐19 pandemic: A rapid review. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(1), 13–24. Web.