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This new analysis demonstrates how there has been an accelerated uptake of digital technologies for maintaining business and life continuity.

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Digitalization is allowing telemedicine, telework and online education to proliferate. It is also generating more data on the expansion of the virus and helping information exchanges for research.

There has been a leap in teleworking and online conferencing, amplifying the demand for online conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Cisco's Webex and Zoom, the analysis says.

According to Microsoft, the number of people using its software for online collaboration climbed nearly 40% in a week.

In China, the use of digital work applications from WeChat, Tencent and Ding took off at the end of January when lockdown measures started to take effect.
Use of selected remote work applications in China
1 January - 5 March 2020, number of users
Other benefits include using artificial intelligence to help find a cure and a significant shift to e-commerce, benefitting small and big businesses alike.

However not all technology companies are profiting and there are some serious consequences of the rush to online platforms. These include mounting security and privacy concerns, according to UNCTAD.
The downside and the digital divide
The fast-paced shift towards digitalization is likely to strengthen the market positions of a few mega-digital platforms, the analysis finds.

This finding echoes the conclusions drawn in UNCTAD's 2019 Digital Economy Report, which pointed out that the world's top seven digital platforms already accounted for two-thirds of the value of digital platforms globally in 2017.

They have benefitted from network effects and from their ability to extract, control and analyse data, then transform it into digital intelligence that can be monetized.

"This situation will now be amplified as more people come or are forced online due to the coronavirus crisis," said Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD's digital economy head. "Those that do not have access are at risk of being left further behind as digital transformation accelerates, especially those in least developed countries."

The least developed countries (LDCs) are the most vulnerable to the human and economic consequences of the pandemic, and they also lag farthest behind in digital readiness.

Only one in five people in LDCs use the Internet, and in most developing countries, well below 5% of the population currently buy goods or services online.

Lack of Internet access at home also limits connectivity, cramping, for example, the possibilities for students to be connected if schools are closed. "The education gap may also expand in developing countries, compounding inequalities," said Sirimanne.

Low broadband quality hampers the ability to use teleconferencing tools. Mobile data costs also remain expensive across the developing world.
A development opportunity?
The coronavirus pandemic's ability to show fractures can, hopefully, be turned into an opportunity, said Ms. Sirimanne. "More developing countries are exploring e-commerce and other digital solutions that can help build local resilience to future shocks," she said.

The main policy takeaway from the analysis is that much more attention should be given to bridging existing and emerging digital divides to allow more countries to take advantage of digitalization.

New policies and regulations are needed to ensure a fair distribution of the gains from digital disruptions.

"If left unaddressed, the yawning gap between under-connected and hyper-digitalized countries will widen, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities," she added.

"As with the coronavirus crisis and other development challenges, the world will need a coordinated multilateral response to deal with the challenge of digitalization."

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unctad.org | Coronavirus reveals need to bridge the digital divide

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Digitalization is allowing telemedicine, telework and online education to proliferate. It is also generating more data on the expansion of the virus and helping information exchanges for research. There has been a leap in teleworking and online conferencing, amplifying the demand for online conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Cisco's Webex and Zoom, the analysis says.

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(2) Technology can help the lonely elderly endure social distancing 

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(2) Technology can help the lonely elderly endure social distancing 

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The IBM Institute for Business Value research how loneliness directly impacts personal, economic and social well being in older adults- outlining the major role technology plays in driving positive change.

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Getty Images

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through nations, with no vaccine yet available, a cohesive effort to "flatten the curve" through physical isolation has become a critically important tactic to slow the transmission rate. The goal is to reduce the numbers of people getting sick at the same time to prevent local health systems from being overwhelmed. This is particularly necessary for the elderly, who are at much greater risk of severe complications. But these public health isolation measures come at a cost: disruption in our lives and social isolation.

Loneliness in the era of social distancing has become a public health crisis in its own right. Ironically, the elderly, who stand to gain the most from social distancing, are also among the communities most impacted by the isolation. We need real solutions that can address this issue, and there is a tremendous opportunity for technology to play a part.

Social Isolation Causes Suffering

Humans are social by nature, and depriving us of that social connection is harmful. Across every age and demographic, society is starting to see the first-hand effects of long-term isolation. But for the elderly, the "loneliness epidemic" was a growing concern well before the first confirmed case of COVID-19. Social isolation and loneliness are much more common and have greater impact than previously realized.

Social isolation causes real suffering, and can lead not only to depression and anxiety, but to related health problems such as cognitive decline and heart disease. People with strong social bonds are 50 percent less likely to die over a given period of time than those who have fewer social connections. One study estimated the mortality impact of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, which is similar in magnitude to well-established risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity. This does not even count the social and economic consequences, like the heavy burden on caregivers to provide support.

Fortunately, there is a growing body of science that points the way toward addressing these issues. The best way to provide actual solutions is to understand the bigger variables in play that precipitate loneliness. In older adults, social isolation almost always goes hand-in-hand with some form of loss. This includes physical losses, such as visual and hearing impairments or impaired mobility, including the loss of mobility through transportation (e.g. driving a car).

Over time, many people experience the loss of spouses, family and friends, while seeing their own roles in society reduced or ignored. They struggle to adjust to these changes and make new connections, and often refuse help or deny these feelings to avoid the social stigmas and diminished social value associated with aging.

How Technology Can Help

Loneliness is a multi-faceted challenge to address, even in the best of times. In times of uncertainty, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenge is even greater, and no one organization can solve it on its own. The IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) researched how loneliness directly impacts personal, economic and social well-being in older adults-outlining the major role technology plays in driving positive change.

Providers of health care and social services should consider several tech-related strategies to foster greater connection amongst elderly communities. While technology cannot replace in-person social interactions, if done well, technology can be part of the solution.

Customized, relevant content and services are essential: To successfully build and enhance social capital, we need to tailor policies and programs to the interests of the individual and the specifics of their communities.

Governmental, municipal and community-based agencies, hospital networks and telecommunications vendors alike can quickly build cost-effective solutions by partnering with technology companies that have already paved the way in cognitive IoT for healthcare platforms. These platforms use personalized features that can meet individual needs, such as natural language, vision recognition and data integration capabilities.

Solutions like Watson Care Manager have the potential to help clinical systems and government agencies focus on person-centered care. Such an approach allows care teams to assess social and clinical needs, create individualized care plans, refer to a variety of targeted programs and community-based providers, and capture and make meaningful data available to all stakeholders. This can include determining food, safety, mental health and emergency assistance needs for the elderly; directing them to community care providers and other systems of support for food, medication and in-home care; and tracking and engaging people virtually to monitor and support their home care needs.

Personalization must take priority over simplification: Solutions should be able to adapt to the wide variation of technical fluency within the aging community. It's critical to debunk the myth that older adults cannot or will not adapt to new technology; this is a common and inaccurate stereotype.

This week, for example, IBM and the University College London (UCL) launched the IBM Industry Exchange Network (IBM IXN), an international educational partnership that aims to develop experimental R&D programs to give students worldwide direct access to new programs in emerging technology sectors. IBM IXN is creating a virtual reality application that uses IBM Watson to create a customized social virtual reality experience tailored for elderly users, which has the potential to help address the loneliness epidemic at this pivotal time.

Scalability is essential: While there are many successful pilots and programs in place, they operate in relative isolation and require a high degree of customization. This limits their ability to expand and serve more people. Future solutions need to offer both ease of customization and cost-effective scalability.

As no single organization can solve this issue alone, solutions need to be designed to keep people connected to a network of stakeholders and service providers efficiently and quickly, including infrastructure providers, government agencies, and healthcare and advocacy organizations. Insights from shared data will make a crucial difference here.

In this unprecedented moment, business, government and communities must come together to understand the root causes of loneliness, especially among aging populations, and quickly pull together solutions that can help now. It's imperative that broader countermeasures are put in place to further protect our most vulnerable not only during the current global health crisis, but in post-pandemic times as well.

________

References:

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, et.al. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review PLOS Medicine Published: July 27, 2010

Alcaraz et al. Am J Epidemiol. 2019 Jan; 188(1): 102-109.

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IBM BrandVoice: Technology Can Help The Lonely Elderly Endure Social Distancing

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through nations, with no vaccine yet available, a cohesive effort to "flatten the curve" through physical isolation has become a critically important tactic to slow the transmission rate. The goal is to reduce the numbers of people getting sick at the same time to prevent local health systems from being overwhelmed.

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(3) How Real People Are Staying Connected During The Coronavirus Pandemic.

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(3) How Real People Are Staying Connected During The Coronavirus Pandemic.

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This article reveals personal accounts of how people are using digital technology to stay connected during COVID-19.

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In an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, people all over the world are asked to stay inside and practice the rules of social distancing - which means no more post-work happy hours, weekend birthday celebrations, dinner plans with a group, or seeing your friends who are not quarantining with you.

Humans are inherently social creatures, so this change has thrown off more than a few of us - myself included. As someone who enjoys heading to bars, going out to eat, and just hanging out with a group of friends, I feel more alone and disconnected from the world than ever.

"The human condition is to find belonging and connection," says Moraya Seeger DeGeare, licensed marriage and family therapist and co-owner of BFF Therapy in Beacon, NY. What shelter in place and social distancing measures have forced us to do is re-navigate the ways in which we feel close to and cared by the people in our lives.

When we're not able to default to our normal modes of connecting ("Let's grab a drink!"), we notice the lack. As a result, we may wind up reaching out to friends and family a bit more than we usually would. Having to put in extra work to bond isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Believe it or not, now there are opportunities to have much more intimate connections, because you're being more intentional," notes DeGeare. "I find that a lot of people are having much more intense friendships, or are reconnecting with people."

The collective stress we're experiencing as a result of COVID-19 may also encourage a certain camaraderie. "Everyone's very much in this together," DeGeare says. "There's that community feeling, so it's less weird right now for people to be reaching out."

Take, for example, my mom. She's still close with her group of childhood friends from Staten Island, where she grew up. Prior to the pandemic, her group would get together once or twice a year for a long weekend away. But since the outbreaks reached the US, they've been having happy hours on Zoom every weekend - loud ones, I might add - which has allowed them to have way more (virtual) face time than they'd been banking before.

"We've never talked this much before," my mom told me. "We have a group text where we would chat every once in a while, but nothing like this. It's just nice seeing their faces. It makes us all feel less alone."

Some friend groups are using technology to replicate events they planned to enjoy together IRL. Garrett, 21, isa senior at Penn State Universitywho had to head home for his final semester due to COVID-19. "The Blue-White Game was supposed to be last weekend," Garrett explained, referring to an organised football scrimmage that occurs every spring before the regular season officially starts. The game may not be as intense as a regular season game, but the tailgating is. It's a huge social event; one of the biggest before school lets out for the summer.

The game, of course, was cancelled. But instead of wallowing, Garrett and his friends decided to dress in their game-day best and hop on Zoom to have an online tailgate. "It definitely wasn't the same as being in the field with cars everywhere, but it felt better that we were all together," he said.

Zoom isn't all happy hours and tailgates, though. After Rachel, 24, realised that she and her friends were all taking the time at home to read more often, they kicked off a virtual book club.

"We decided to start reading The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and are agreeing on a certain amount of the book to read each week," she says. "Then we all meet on Zoom on Thursday nights and discuss what we've read so far in the book."

Technology can take us pretty far, but some people are finding that nothing really replaces face-to-face time. "I'm still struggling a bit in getting used to the lack of physical contact, though I'm grateful for social media and FaceTime," saysEmily, 20. She says that human contact has always been a way to help her overcome her anxiety, and the screen substitutes aren't quite cutting it. So even during this pandemic, she's been relying on loopholes to stay connected. When she starts to feel too isolated, she sees friends - while trying to maintain the recommended distance. "We grab some ice cream, and sit in a parking lot at the beach six feet apart, and just talk," she says. ( The CDC recommendation is still to stay at home as much as possible, and if you must leave your house, to stay at least six feet apart from others.)

Others are finding new pleasure in old-fashioned methods of communication, including snail mail.

Tyler, 28, had a friend who turned a childhood photo - a shared inside joke - into a magnet, then mailed it to 10 friends. "All of our friends would send a picture of the envelope from the mail when it came to them, but wouldn't show what the magnet looked like. We wanted it to be a surprise for everyone," Tyler said. "It definitely lifted our spirits when we opened it."

Each person I spoke to shared a common sentiment: We're all still trying to figure it out. We want to feel close to our friends and family while staying as safe as possible. But what helps one person feel connected may not work for another.

That's why it's such a good time to experiment. Even if you weren't someone who enjoyed tailgating or book clubs in real life, the virtual version might be the perfect thing for banishing your coronavirus loneliness. And if not, you can always just hang up.

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How Real People Are Staying Connected During The Coronavirus

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In an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, people all over the world are asked to stay inside and practice the rules of social distancing - which means no more post-work happy hours, weekend birthday celebrations, dinner plans with a group, or seeing your friends who are not quarantining with you.

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Age UK, which is the leading UK charity for older people have provided guidance which has encouraged older people to use digital devices during COVID-19 and self-isolation measures as a means to stay in contact with friends and family, and to help the many aspects of day-to-day life that have become digital.

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Supporting older people with technology can be hard when you can't meet up face-to-face.

If you are trying to help someone with a new device or tech questions, you may find the following tips useful:

Make sure you know what they want to achieve - don't overcomplicate things too early.

Make sure you know how the device works so you can show them effectively. Lots of devices have online tutorials which you can explore on older people's behalf.

Be aware that different people have different learning styles and get the balance between demonstrating, providing instructions and answering questions that suits the individual.

Don't make any assumptions about what they already know.

Be patient, don't overload and make sure you go at the pace of the learner.

Be ready to repeat a learning session and respond to queries that come up as they start using the device on their own and come up with questions.

Avoid jargon - not everyone knows what 'apps' are or how you 'swipe'.

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Connecting with digital devices during coronavirus

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Supporting older people with technology can be hard when you can't meet up face-to-face. If you are trying to help someone with a new device or tech questions, you may find the following tips useful: Make sure you know what they want to achieve - don't overcomplicate things too early.

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(5) Butler - Volunteering during COVID-19

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(5) Butler - Volunteering during COVID-19

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Butler describes how there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of people signing up for volunteering, with the NHS volunteer scheme being particularly popular. Digital technologies have played a crucial role in providing a platform where people can interact and coordinate volunteer programmes.

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In the space of a few weeks of coronavirus lockdown, England has acquired a million-strong network of social volunteers - surpassing demand and prompting speculation: is this a new sign of social solidarity, and can the newly acquired community spirit survive?

The extraordinary popularity of the NHS volunteer scheme, which 750,000 people signed up to using a phone app, three times as many as were expected, has been repeated at the country's volunteer centres, which have registered an estimated 250,000 extra people in the past few weeks.

Those numbers come on the back of the astonishing rise of informal mutual aid "good neighbour" organisations - hyper-local groups that keep volunteers in touch via social media. There are more than 4,300 such groups connecting an estimated 3 million people.

"A lot of the popularity of volunteering is about people trying to get a degree of agency and control in their life when they feel so helpless. Somehow, staying at home, even though that is the main thing you can do to help, does not feel enough," said Jackie Rosenberg, the chief executive of One Westminster community action, which has had about 2,500 applicants in recent weeks.

While a typical volunteer centre would anticipate about 100 new applicants in the course of a normal March, many have reported being overwhelmed in recent weeks by demand from thousands of people keen to offer their services to the community for free.

Staffordshire volunteer centre has been receiving up to 100 inquiries a day from potential volunteers. Croydon Volunteer Centre signed up 900 in the first two weeks of April. Cornwall has had more than 3,000 inquiries over the past month, and Dorset more than 1,000. Havering volunteer centre in Romford, Essex took half a year's volunteers in 10 days.

Volunteering Matters, a national volunteer charity, reported that 3,000 people had applied to its website in the past fortnight alone. It normally expects about 20 to 30 applications a week. It has also had more than 80 businesses come forward to volunteer.

The surfeit of volunteers has come at a point where lockdown and physical distancing mean there is a relatively limited range of activities they can do. Most available roles cover shopping, dog walking, food parcel packing, patient transport and "check and chat" phone calls with older people in self-isolation.

There is speculation that England now has more volunteers that it has roles for, with some people on the NHS scheme complaining that they have not had enough to do. The Royal Voluntary Service (RVS), which runs the scheme, said it was too early to say whether there were too many or too few volunteers and no one should worry about not being given tasks.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, volunteer levels had barely shifted nationally for years. There is now hope that one of the legacies of the pandemic will be an injection of relative youth into what had become a largely older-age volunteer community.

The recruitment of volunteers on this scale has not been seen in the UK since the second world war, when more than 1 million registered with the RVS to help with the evacuation of children from the cities during the Blitz. There have been some smaller voluntary efforts though, for example, the 70,000 who helped with the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"It's by no means unique. You do see these outbursts of desire to help your neighbour," said Dr Justin Davis-Smith, a senior lecturer in voluntary sector management at Cass Business School. "There's a real tradition of volunteering, which comes out of national stress and tension."

Jane Ide, the chief executive of NAVCA, said: "To know that around a quarter of a million people have made themselves available to the thousands of local charities and voluntary groups working right on the frontline of supporting those in need is a powerful sign that even in the face of a crisis that affects every one of us, the human desire to help others is unquenchable."

It is too early to know whether the million new volunteers will stay active - the Olympic mini-surge lasted two years before returning to normal levels - and wise heads know that managing a large community of new volunteers, all eager for action straight away, is never straightforward. But, for now, they have the capacity and energy to spare.
Topics

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A million volunteer to help NHS and others during Covid-19 outbreak

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In the space of a few weeks of coronavirus lockdown, England has acquired a million-strong network of social volunteers - surpassing demand and prompting speculation: is this a new sign of social solidarity, and can the newly acquired community spirit survive?

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Within this article, Matt Hancock describes how two people he was very fond of have died due to COVID-19. This raw, human response is used to encourage people to stay inside and follow public safety measures.

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It is "mission-critical" to follow social distancing rules to protect the NHS and slow the spread of coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

"The more people follow the rules then the faster we will all be through this," he said, after reports of packed public parks in London and elsewhere.

This morning Mr Hancock said such behaviour was "quite unbelievable".

At the daily Downing Street briefing, he said it could not go on. It comes as the UK death toll reaches 4,934.

The Department of Health said on Sunday there had been 621 more coronavirus-related deaths in the UK in the past day.

The latest deaths include 12 more in Wales, seven in Northern Ireland and two in Scotland.

As of 09:00 BST on Sunday, 47,806 people had tested positive for coronavirus, the Department of Health said.

Mr Hancock said the government was "not planning any changes imminently" to social distancing policies but he "could not rule out further steps".

"What we are doing is being absolutely clear that the current rules must be followed," he said.

"So I say this to the small minority of people who are breaking the rules or pushing the boundaries: you're risking your own life and the lives of others and you're making it harder for us all."

Mr Hancock offered his "profound sympathies" to the families and friends of those who have died.

He added: "I've lost two people that I was fond of so I understand what a difficult time this is for the country.

"We need perseverance in the face of great challenges."

Speaking at the Downing Street briefing, Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said the rules in place were "the best way to be able to bend the curve down and stop the spread of the virus".

"It is not just what you are doing but how you are doing it," she added.

"If you are sitting on a park bench, people tend to accumulate - it is very difficult to prevent that."

It comes as Brockwell Park in Lambeth was forced to close on Sunday after more than 3,000 people visited, with many sunbathing or in large groups, on Saturday.

There were similar scenes on Primrose Hill in Camden on Saturday, when police moved on more than 100 people.

But local officers tweeted to say thank you after finding far fewer crowds in the area on Sunday.

And Brighton beach was nearly deserted on Sunday, following a warning by Brighton and Hove City Council that too many people were meeting up with friends on the seafront.

It prompted a tweet from Sussex police thanking the public for heeding government advice.

In Essex, local police echoed the sentiment, tweeting that "areas that would normally be busy on a sunny Sunday are not today".

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has warned London parks will be forced to close if Londoners do not follow the rules on social gatherings, and urged people to stay at home amid the warm weather.

Restrictions state that everybody must stay at home where possible, and only leave if they have a "reasonable excuse", such as exercise or shopping for basic necessities.

Newly elected Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner told Sophy Ridge it was "all right for people who have got big houses and huge back gardens" to tell sunbathers observing social distancing to stop doing so.

"If you're stuck in inadequate accommodation... and you're all on top of each other, quite literally, then I think people should do social distancing and should keep their distance, but also be reasonable and proportionate about that," she said.

Harriet Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham, has called for a rota for the use of public parks, writing on Twitter that families in flats with young children need green spaces during the lockdown.

Mr Hancock's warning came ahead of the Queen's address to the nation on Sunday.

In other developments:

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who remains in self-isolation in Downing Street after testing positive for coronavirus, continues to have a high temperature but is "OK", Mr Hancock said

The new Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has accused the government of making "serious mistakes" in its response to the coronavirus

Scotland's chief medical officer will step out of the public eye but remain in her role, after visiting her second home during the lockdown

The culture secretary is planning to hold virtual meetings with tech firms over their response to conspiracy theories linking 5G networks to the pandemic

The Foreign Office said it is now working with 14 commercial airlines to help thousands of Britons still stranded abroad amid the pandemic, with seven charter flights to bring travellers home from India in the coming week

Convenience stores on the outskirts of towns and in rural areas are experiencing a surge in sales - as people turn to them for essentials during the lockdown

A 54-year-old midwife who died with the virus in Essex on Thursday has been named as Lynsay Coventry, the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust said

A nursing assistant has died after looking after coronavirus patients at Watford General Hospital in Hertfordshire

Lord Bath of Longleat has died at the age of 89 after contracting coronavirus

The owner of London's ExCel centre has U-turned on charging the NHS to use the site as a hospital

New Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the party would support the government it if decides to toughen lockdown measures.

"We've got to get through this and every time people break the guidance from the government they put other people at risk," he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is self-isolating after testing positive for coronavirus, tweeted his thanks to "everyone who is saving lives by staying at home this weekend".

"I know it's tough, but if we all work together and follow the guidance we will beat coronavirus," he said.

Mr Hancock said that the number of ventilators needed over the coming weeks will be 18,000, and that currently there are between 9,000 and 10,000 within the NHS.

When asked about the number of nurses that had died of coronavirus, Mr Hancock said the latest figure was three deaths.
How are the lockdown rules on staying at home and social distancing working for you? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

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Public urged to follow 'mission-critical' rules

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It is "mission-critical" to follow social distancing rules to protect the NHS and slow the spread of coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said. "The more people follow the rules then the faster we will all be through this," he said, after reports of packed public parks in London and elsewhere.

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(10) Kelly- Digital divide isolates and endangers millions of UK's poorest

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(10) Kelly- Digital divide isolates and endangers millions of UK's poorest

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Annie Kelly's article provides personal, human accounts of the suffering which is being experienced within the UK public due to having a lack of digital technology/ lack of technological literacy during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Lockdown is creating a stark digital divide in the UK, with 1.9 million households with no access to the internet and tens of millions more reliant on pay-as-you-go services to make phone calls or access healthcare, education and benefits online.

Frontline community groups and charities are warning that the digital exclusion of some of the UK's poorest and most vulnerable households and communities is having a devastating effect across the country.

The scale of the problem is staggering," says Helen Milner, the chief executive of the Good Things Foundation, a charity that tackles digital exclusion in the UK. "Pay-as-you-go customers without the means to buy data are finding themselves shut in their homes, facing social isolation with no means of communicating with the outside world."

One woman living in London said she was having to choose between food and data. She spends almost half of her weekly household budget on top-up credit to allow her teenage daughters to access homeschooling resources.

"We live on just over £100 a week and before lockdown I was spending around £10 a week on top-up data and now it is costing around £30-40 every week" she said.

"We only have one phone between the three of us and I have to limit the time that they are online because I can't afford any more. I'm also having to leave the house to buy data cards, which makes me very worried. I can't get online long enough to send emails to the utility companies. I've told them we can only eat twice a day because I can't afford any more food. "

Q&A
What are the UK government's 'five tests' for ending lockdown restrictions?

The UK government has said that these five tests have to be met before they will consider easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions:

That the NHS can cope with the number of hospital admissions and people in intensive care

A 'sustained and consistent' fall in the daily death rate

The rate of infection is decreasing to 'manageable levels'

Ensuring that the supply of tests and personal protective equipment can meet future demand

Confidence that any adjustments to the restrictions would not risk a second peak of virus infections later in the year

Was this helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

While the UK's major internet providers have agreed to remove data caps on fixed-line broadband during the coronavirus pandemic, this does not apply to the estimated 1.9 million households with no internet data or the 25.9 million pay-as-you-go customers, who make up over a quarter of all mobile phone subscriptions in the UK.

Vulnerable groups such as elderly people, asylum seekers and refugees and households living in poverty are hit hardest by more expensive pay-as-you-go tariffs because they cannot afford wifi at home or fixed-term contracts.

"It's not just about loneliness and isolation," says Jane Caldwell, the chief executive of Age UK East London. "We had one man last week who hadn't eaten in over a week because he didn't have enough money to make a phone call and didn't know who to go for help. We have elderly people who can't get on council shielding lists because you have to register online. Others have ended up critically ill in hospital who have to beg to use a healthcare workers device just to make contact with their family."

In Manchester, a community network said almost 75% of the 1,000 women they support are completely reliant on pay-as-you-go data services.

"Women in situations of domestic violence are particularly isolated," says Rose Ssali from the Mama Health and Poverty Partnership. "Most of them have no access to their phones or the internet. We're now trying to find funds to buy pay-as-you-go handsets with a bit of credit on them and hiding them in the food packages we're dropping off so at least they have a way of calling someone if they are in trouble and need help. "

Jo Dougherty, group leader for the Happy Baby Community, a group working with asylum seekers and victims of trafficking, said it had been trying to find ways to keep pregnant women and new mothers connected to vital healthcare services.

Quick guide
Will there be a second wave of coronavirus?

Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated - albeit more mildly - in subsequent flu pandemics.

How and why multiple-wave outbreaks occur, and how subsequent waves of infection can be prevented, has become a staple of epidemiological modelling studies and pandemic preparation, which have looked at everything from social behaviour and health policy to vaccination and the buildup of community immunity, also known as herd immunity.

Is there evidence of coronavirus coming back elsewhere?

This is being watched very carefully. Without a vaccine, and with no widespread immunity to the new disease, one alarm is being sounded by the experience of Singapore, which has seen a sudden resurgence in infections despite being lauded for its early handling of the outbreak.

Although Singapore instituted a strong contact tracing system for its general population, the disease re-emerged in cramped dormitory accommodation used by thousands of foreign workers with inadequate hygiene facilities and shared canteens.

Singapore's experience, although very specific, has demonstrated the ability of the disease to come back strongly in places where people are in close proximity and its ability to exploit any weakness in public health regimes set up to counter it.

What are experts worried about?

Conventional wisdom among scientists suggests second waves of resistant infections occur after the capacity for treatment and isolation becomes exhausted. In this case the concern is that the social and political consensus supporting lockdowns is being overtaken by public frustration and the urgent need to reopen economies.

The threat declines when susceptibility of the population to the disease falls below a certain threshold or when widespread vaccination becomes available.

In general terms the ratio of susceptible and immune individuals in a population at the end of one wave determines the potential magnitude of a subsequent wave. The worry right now is that with a vaccine still months away, and the real rate of infection only being guessed at, populations worldwide remain highly vulnerable to both resurgence and subsequent waves.

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"It's no exaggeration to say this will fast become a life or death situation" she says."The women we work with have literally no money. They cannot cannot call midwife services or the triage at the hospital when they go into labour. After birth they are alone in their rooms with a newborn, no money, and no way of calling or going online to get any support."

In Stockport, Nicola Wallace Dean from the Starting Point Community Learning Partnership, has been urgently raising funds to try and get top-up data cards out to households in her community.

"We've started seeing signs go up in windows where people are begging someone to get some help or call a charity on their behalf because they can't go online to find out where food banks are, call the GP or get their medication," she said.

Marsha de Cordova, the shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, said it was unacceptable that people were having to choose accessing the internet and buying food.

"There is no more crucial time to ensure that everyone is connected and has access to the digital services, wifi and resources that they need," she says. "The government must act now to reduce unequal provisions of phone and internet service during this crisis and ensure that no one is left behind as a result of digital exclusion."

The government has recently launched a range of initiatives to try to tackle digital exclusion exacerbated by the pandemic. These include pledges to provide some disadvantaged teenagers with laptops and a new campaign, Devicesdotnow, that asks businesses to donate devices, sims and mobile hotspots.

"We recognise the importance of people being connected and that's why we've already taken action to broker a major deal with the mobile and broadband companies to provide essential support for vulnerable consumers who may be affected by coronavirus," said a spokesperson for the the department of digital, culture, media and sport.

Yet anti-poverty groups such as the Aple Collective, a network of people who have experienced poverty, say not enough is being done.

"We welcome the positive and compassionate moves being made by government and the telecommunications industry to seek to buffer the effects of Covid-19 on those on low incomes," they said in a statement. "However, what is little mentioned so far are the voices and responses from those who are completely excluded from the digital world."
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Digital divide 'isolates and endangers' millions of UK's poorest

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Lockdown is creating a stark digital divide in the UK, with 1.9 million households with no access to the internet and tens of millions more reliant on pay-as-you-go services to make phone calls or access healthcare, education and benefits online.

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This is the clapforourcarers official website where they offer all the digital ways that people can get involved, including the hashtag #clapforourcarers

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#clapforourcarers | Get involved | Clap for our Carers

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There are many ways to show your appreciation for our amazing, brave key workers. Join us every Thursday evening at 8pm. #clapforourcarers

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This itv NEWS article shares 6 emotional, moving images of a variety of people all getting involved and showing solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 through participating in the Clap For Our Carer's campaign.

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For a sixth week in a row, millions of people across the United Kingdom showed their appreciation for NHS and key workers.

Clap For Our Carers has become a weekly event as locked-down communities come together on their doorsteps to clap in unison, while in cities applause rings out across otherwise quiet skylines as people stand on their balconies or at their windows.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson clapped on the steps of Number 10 for the first time since he returned to the job after spending several days in intensive care with coronavirus.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak joined the PM to show his appreciation.

It comes as Boris Johnson has said he will set out a "road map" for the UK's coronavirus lockdown exit strategy "next week".

Speaking at the government's daily Covid-19 update, the prime minister said the UK has "passed the peak" of the respiratory disease.
To send a message of support to the NHS and donate £5, text CLAP and your message to 70507. Your message can be passed onto your local hospital, and the donation will go to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 appeal. You will be charged £5 plus one standard rate message, and you must be 18 or over.

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uk thanks key coronavirus workers in nationwide clap for our carers.

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UK thanks key coronavirus workers in nationwide Clap For Our Carers

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For a sixth week in a row, millions of people across the United Kingdom showed their appreciation for NHS and key workers. Clap For Our Carers has become a weekly event as locked-down communities come together on their doorsteps to clap in unison, while in cities applause rings out across otherwise quiet skylines as people stand on their balconies or at their windows.

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Communities gather online in the coronavirus crisis

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Communities gather online in the coronavirus crisis

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Australians are coordinating online to seek solace and share practical tips during the coronavirus.

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'People need to be supportive': communities gather online in the coronavirus crisis

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As a telemarketer for a range of charities, Clare Hamman spends a lot of time on the phone. In the last couple of weeks, conversation with those on the other end has started to veer off-topic: "I was hearing so many people say 'what's going on?', 'I can't afford to stockpile' and 'what do I do?'" she says, explaining that many of the people she reaches at home during the day are pensioners or unemployed.

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Whilst coronavirus has put spot on hold, many sports fans have found alternatives to keep sport in their lives. Sport is part of peoples identity and it draws you into a collective project with thousands of other fans.

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I tried. I really did. But I simply could not get into it. Belarusian football, that is.

As coronavirus has brought life to a standstill across the globe, so sport has disappeared from our calendar. And many sports, and sports fans, have taken to finding alternatives, from virtual races to replays of old matches to following Belarus football, one of the few football leagues still active.

"Europe's last dictatorship" has, for a quarter of a century, been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko a leader with little tolerance for any opposition. While other countries have imposed lockdowns, Lukashenko has insisted that life, and sport, must continue as normal. And so, fans starved of football elsewhere have taken to the Belarus Premier League, which has signed a string of new broadcasting deals with foreign TV companies.

When tens of thousands are dying and hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs, and when the lockdown in countries such as India and South Africa threatens to push millions further into poverty and starvation, debating how to slake a thirst for football might seem irrelevant, even distasteful. Not to mention the ethics of watching games in which players are forced to perform because a corrupt leader insists that all is well.

And yet there is something about sport that makes it meaningful even, perhaps especially, in a time like this. It is not just that to watch Rafael Nadal's top-spin forehand or Lionel Messi toying with an opponent is to remind ourselves of the thrill of physical endeavour, it is also that we often forget the social significance of sport.

In his book Knowing the Score, the philosopher David Papineau contrasts the sporting views of the celebrated Liverpool manager Bill Shankly with those of the linguist and radical Noam Chomsky. Football, Shankly once remarked, "is not a matter of life and death. It's much more important than that." Chomsky dismisses sport as something "which has no meaning and probably thrives because it has no meaning, as a displacement from the serious problems which one cannot influence".

Papineau is with Shankly. The Liverpool manager did not, of course, mean his words to be taken literally. It was just his Shanklyesque way of suggesting that, in Papineau's words, "sport is just as serious as the rest of life". But is it?

For most of history, sport was seen as an indispensable building block of the good society. Plato regarded sport as essential in the development of the virtues, especially fortitude. Martial arts in Japan have long been celebrated as a means of both spiritual development and social ordering. In 19th-century Britain, sport became an instrument through which to teach the ruling class to rule and the working class to obey. It's only today, as the top layers of sport have been insufferably commercialised and turned into a mega-rich industry, that its moral and social significance has become obscured and it has become viewed primarily as a form of entertainment.

Much of the historical discussion about sport has explored the moral and social significance of engaging in sporting activity. But what about watching sport? "I fell in love with football as I was to later fall in love with women," Nick Hornby writes in Fever Pitch. "Suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it." It's a wonderful account of fan obsession, almost to the point of derangement, something that many other fans would recognise.

Supporting a team becomes a strand of who you are and is absorbed into your identity, turning, in Papineau's words, into one of "life's projects". Whether political, cultural, sporting or personal, each such project helps give meaning to one's life. For the committed fan, the success of your team becomes in a sense bound up with your own emotions and welfare. Which is one of the reasons why Belarus football left me cold - I had no emotional attachment to any of the teams.

Being a fan is, however, not just a personal obsession. It also draws you into a collective project with thousands of other fans. In many towns, from Barnsley to Sunderland, football clubs are often one of most important social institutions. They provide not just a sense of civic pride, but also a kind of collective hope or aspiration. And in recent years, as wider political and social projects and identities have disintegrated, so the sense of solidarity provided by institutions such as football clubs has become more important.

Last week marked the 31st anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives, through a combination of being caged into an area too small to hold them and catastrophic policing that treated dying fans as hooligans. Police, politicians and sections of the media, most notably the Sun, scapegoated fans, inventing lurid stories about their behaviour and blaming them for the carnage. What began as a terrible football tragedy turned into an inspirational campaign for social justice, which has left its mark on British politics.

The week before the anniversary, the board of Liverpool FC reversed a decision to furlough non-playing staff - getting the government to pay 80% of their wages - after outrage from fans who insisted that it was morally indefensible for a multimillion-pound business to demand state funding. Two other Premier League clubs, Spurs and Bournemouth, also backed down after fan pressure.

Yet if all this reveals the social significance of sport, the pandemic has put it in perspective. When the lockdown brought the Premier League to a close, Liverpool were 25 points clear at the top and coasting to their first league title for 30 years. Many Liverpool fans were aghast at the thought that this season might be declared null and void and the title snatched from their grasp.

The Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, a man often compared to Shankly, wrote a message to supporters. Football, he wrote, may be "the most important of the least important things". But "today, football and football matches really aren't important at all". What matters is to "think about the vulnerable in our society and act where possible with compassion for them".

The sporting calendar will eventually return to normal, Liverpool will (hopefully) be crowned Premier League champions and sport will allow for a catharsis of joy as life rebounds. And we will perhaps have learned that somewhere between the words of Shankly and those of Klopp lies both sporting truth and social wisdom.

* Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist
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It's not just the spectacle we crave. Sport also offers identity, pride, hope | Kenan Malik

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I tried. I really did. But I simply could not get into it. Belarusian football, that is. As coronavirus has brought life to a standstill across the globe, so sport has disappeared from our calendar.

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This article discusses how people are using various online platforms to create music together despite being physically apart.

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What coronavirus tells us about collective psychology and our quarantine by tech

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What coronavirus tells us about collective psychology and our quarantine by tech

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This article is interesting as it discusses how the ways we deal with the coronavirus are bound up with the way we think about society and about the individual. It is off the notion of collective identity, where we act to protect the most vulnerable amongst our communities. Framed in the way, this encourages people to watch their hands etc.

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The feverish person who goes to work, the fit young person demanding access to A&E will be best dissuaded when the community comes together to make clear that these are not acceptable behaviours.

Once you collectivise the response to coronavirus, and once you create clear norms about maximising community well-being, then you become less reliant upon external forces such as the police to regulate behaviours - say around who is prioritised in getting medical help - with all the risk of clashes that entails.

Instead, the community itself will constrain would-be deviants in their midst. As always, the best regulation is collective self-regulation.

The difficulty with this approach, of course, is that it is so much at odds with contemporary psychological commonsense, which insists that behaviour is governed by individual self interest.

It is also at odds with social changes which relentlessly undermine communities and collectivities, seek to transform social groups into individual consumers and view every relationship as a market based interpersonal exchange.

In this sense, perhaps coronavirus is a powerful wake-up call.

From The Atlantic website, Ian Bogost on how technology already had us in quarantine:

...If conditions get truly bad, a serious public-health lockdown would indeed upend ordinary life. Barring that extreme, these efforts [to encourage home-working] extend a process that was under way long before a novel virus threatened to go pandemic.

In a way, "quarantine" is just a raw, surprising name for the condition that computer technologies have brought about over the last two decades: making almost everything possible from the quiet isolation of a desk or a chair illuminated by an internet-connected laptop or tablet.

...The benefits of a life online have begun to outweigh the costs for some Americans. The flip side of quarantine's threat is technology's promise-we have been preparing for the end of in-person work for some time.

As this week began, one of my Georgia Tech school chairs encouraged faculty to consider how we might conduct our classes remotely should the need arise. But that possibility is already daily practice. Canvas, an online courseware platform, powers our classes. We hold institutional licenses to videoconferencing services similar to Zoom.

And we are invested in large-scale online education, including online degrees that enroll thousands of students all around the world.

Never before in human history has it been so easy to do so much without going anywhere.

From InsurgeIntelligence, Nafeez Ahmed on how a better global system maybe lies on the other side of the Coronavirus:

The coronavirus outbreak is, ultimately, a lesson in not just the inherent systemic fragilities in industrial civilization, but also the limits of its underlying paradigm.

This is a paradigm premised on a specific theory of human nature, the neoclassical view of Homo-Economicus, human beings as dislocated units which compete with each other to maximise their material self-gratification through endless consumption and production.

That paradigm and its values have brought us so far in our journey as a species, but they have long outlasted their usefulness and now threaten to undermine our societies, and even our survival as a species.

Getting through coronavirus will be an exercise not just in building societal resilience, but relearning the values of cooperation, compassion, generosity and kindness, and building systems which institutionalize these values.

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What Coronavirus tells us about collective psychology, our quarantine by tech, and the better system to come - THE ALTERNATIVE UK

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We pause for blogging-and then a global pandemic kicks off... At the very least, it has shone a klieg-light through our modern fragilities. Any loss of life is deeply to be mourned.

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The collective psychology of coronavirus 

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The collective psychology of coronavirus 

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This article looks at whether we see ourselves as part of a larger US, a them-and-us, or an atomised I?

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Just like climate change or political tribalism, coronavirus asks us: do we see ourselves as part of a Larger Us, a them-and-us, or an atomised "I"?

Each of us is answering that question all the time right now. Do we hoard hand sanitiser, or leave enough for others? Do we observe social distancing protocols, or shrug and figure we're young enough that the symptoms will be no big deal so why worry? Do we think we're all in this together, or do we blame it on others (the Chinese, the Mexicans, the Americans)?

All this makes me think about the stuff I've been working on over the last couple of years in the Collective Psychology Project (CPP), which I set up in 2018 - and in particular the importance of whether we respond to perceived threats by going into fight-or-flight or tend-and-befriend mode.

Fight-or-flight - or more accurately, fight / flight / freeze - is a natural reaction to threat or feelings of overwhelm. But it's not particularly helpful in the face of a collective threat like coronavirus. It's a primal response, not a considered one. It focuses on the interests of the individual, not the collective. It reduces our capacity to empathise, and makes us more vulnerable to extremism or other hyper-tribal thinking. It leads to behaviours that push us apart.

With tend-and-befriend, on the other hand, we respond to danger by tending ourselves and our families, and befriending others so as to build dense social networks of mutual assistance. It's a far more prosocial response to threat. It emphasises our interdependence with one another, and regards it as a source of strength rather than vulnerability. Where fight-or-flight zones out on the individual and pushes us apart, tend-and-befriend focuses on the collective and brings us together.

So what can help us into tend-and-befriend and out of fight-or-flight? In our work at CPP, we highlight three factors in particular: Agency, Belonging, and Conscious self-awareness, or ABC for short. Briefly,

Agency is about whether we feel like we have power to shape our lives;

Belonging is about whether we feel connected or alone; and

Conscious self-awareness is about whether we have the presence of mind to be able to choose how to react to the stuff that happens in our lives rather than our amygdala (the part of our brain that deals with threats) choosing for us.

All three are really relevant to coronavirus.

Start with agency. This is what what we're really looking for when we fill our shopping trollies with enough to survive a zombie apocalypse: the sense of being able to do something to control our circumstances. (And actually, while panic buying is clearly bad, some calm, steady stocking up is good, in that it puts additional slack in the system. Read this great thread.)

But for the Larger Us version of agency, we need to go beyond stocking up our own personal bunker, and think about our communities. A lot of people in our communities - especially elderly people - are going to have a very hard time over the next couple of months. 80% of those with coronavirus will need to tough it out at home. Many more, like those with weak immune systems or existing conditions, will also need to self-isolate.

There's a lot we can do to help them without compromising social distancing. Buying food or medicines. Cooking food if needed, and leaving it at the doorstep. Setting up systems for checking in on vulnerable people to make sure they're OK.

Which brings us to belonging. Loneliness is terrible for health at the best of times; as bad for life expectancy as smoking 15 a day. Now imagine being an elderly person living alone and finding that not only are the grandchildren off limits for the next three months, but so are the 'weak ties' that constitute your day-to-day social contact: the GP, the postman, the person at the supermarket checkout.

Again, we can do a lot to allay this - and the boredom, anxiety, and grief that all of us may be about to face - by coming together. Now, before the tsunami hits, is exactly the right time to be reaching out to our neighbours, whether by email or with fliers or a poster on a lamp post, to set up a street level WhatsApp or Facebook group.

A month from now, when we're at the peak, we may find that to be an incredibly valuable source of belonging: a platform to share news and memes to keep us sane, and to create a sense of shared identity that nurtures our sense of rootedness in the places where we live even when we can't go out into them.

And then there's conscious self-awareness - the one that tips the balance between fight-or-flight and tend-and-befriend. This is a deeply weird time. As Venkatesh Rao notes on Ribbonfarm, it's one of those moments - like 9/11 or the fall of the Berlin Wall - when our master narrative is collapsing. Suddenly, everything is uncertain. With no story to guide us, we zone out on maths. ("Pantry stocks math. Alcohol percentage math. Infection risk math. Toilet paper math.")

Amid such uncertainty, with no guiding story to fall back on, we're prone to a another kind of contagion besides the virus itself: infection with other people's mental and emotional states. As yesterday's market crashes showed, panic can ripple through our collective central nervous system as quickly as a murmuration of starlings changes course. More subtly, we can find (as I did last night) that a 3 hour Twitter information binge can leave you feeling depressed and edgy rather than informed and prepared.

So even as we care for others - and, in doing so, increase our own sense of agency and belonging - we need to look after ourselves. Everyone's version of self-care is different. It might mean meditation. Time in nature. Eating healthily. Reading Stoic philosophy, or a Harry Potter novel. Yoga. Favourite music. Looking at the stars.

Conversely, don't zone out on the news all day. Curate your social media feed to mute haters and panic spreaders. Try to defuse polarisation and fake news when you come across them.

All of us need to manage our mental and emotional states now more than ever. Not just for our own wellbeing, but also because our inner states end up affecting everything else around us. That's the whole point about collective psychology: the state of the world affects our states of mind, and our states of mind affect the world. Coronavirus brings that fact into especially sharp relief.

As I noted at the end of the thread I did when CPP launched A Larger Us, all of us now own this challenge. None of this is going to be solved for us by a few expert practitioners. Because the truth is, all of us already *are* practitioners of collective psychology - whether consciously or otherwise.

So we'd better get good at it.

This article was first published on Global Dashboard.

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The collective psychology of coronavirus

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Just like climate change or political tribalism, coronavirus asks us: do we see ourselves as part of a Larger Us, a them-and-us, or an atomised "I"? Each of us is answering that question all the time right now. Do we hoard hand sanitiser, or leave enough for others?

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(8) Video of Clap For Our Carer's applause

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(8) Video of Clap For Our Carer's applause

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This itv NEWS video showcases a variety of communities and neighbourhoods all uniting on their doorsteps to show their solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 and gratitude to those risking their lives on the frontline. The speaker within the video notes beautifully how "It was a moment the country came together".

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Brits clap to thank NHS workers for help during coronavirus outbreak | ITV News

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The digital divide leaves millions at a disadvantage during the coronavirus pandemic 

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The digital divide leaves millions at a disadvantage during the coronavirus pandemic 

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The digital divide falls along existing lines of socioeconomic inequality and has left people without internet access at a sever disadvantage in accessing the real-time information people need to respond to COVID-19.

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CC BY-ND

Amidst the flurry of social media updates about the COVID-19 pandemic, a chart illustrating the importance of flattening the curve has gone viral. The idea is that taking measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 lowers the chances of overwhelming hospitals and increases the chances that all of those who become ill will have access to treatment. The logic behind flattening the COVID-19 curve is intuitive - don't panic, but be careful.

Unsurprisingly, the internet is playing a critical role in getting the word out to be careful and to help flatten the COVID-19 curve. Websites that present government data are giving people a sense of where cases are concentrated, and numerous other websites list numbers to call, symptoms to check for and tips for prevention. Increasingly universities are shifting courses online, businesses are asking employees to work from home and shoppers are ordering groceries online to minimize time in crowded spaces.

While the internet is an important resource in efforts to stay informed and proceed with daily lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, these online approaches to reducing risk are not available to everyone in the same way. As the Federal Communications Commission reports, more than 24 million Americans have no access to broadband internet, while the Pew Charitable Trusts projects 163 million Americans lack access to reliable broadband internet connections.

This digital divide falls along existing lines of socioeconomic inequality - those who are poorer and live in less affluent areas pay more for less reliable service. And while smartphones are more prevalent across all socioeconomic groups, they're a poor alternative for broadband internet access for tasks like working from home or attending classes online.

The digital divide leaves some of the most vulnerable Americans - a significant proportion of the 163 million who lack access to a reliable broadband internet connection - at a significant disadvantage when it comes to accessing the real-time information people need to respond to COVID-19. This is a problem not only for people without broadband access, but also for society as a whole as we struggle to flatten the COVID-19 curve.

There will be many important lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. A less obvious, yet nonetheless important, lesson is that the digital divide is complicating efforts to respond to the challenges society faces. Indeed, a poignant lesson from this pandemic is that finding ways to bridge the digital divide is quickly becoming a matter of life and death.
This article has been updated to correct the name of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
[ Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation's email newsletter.]

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The digital divide leaves millions at a disadvantage during the coronavirus pandemic

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Amidst the flurry of social media updates about the COVID-19 pandemic, a chart illustrating the importance of flattening the curve has gone viral. The idea is that taking measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 lowers the chances of overwhelming hospitals and increases the chances that all of those who become ill will have access to treatment.

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LinkedIn's coronavirus content builds a sense of community 

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LinkedIn's coronavirus content builds a sense of community 

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LinkedIn is usually a place where people go to for their specific, professional networks. Since the coronavirus has disrupted most workplaces, LinkedIn's homepage is now used to share news about the coronavirus. LinedIn are sharing Covid-19 facts, and good news regarding the work situations. This is heartening in an environment where many are experiencing job risk and uncertainty.

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LinkedIn is a buttoned-up place where people go to work their specific, professional networks. But since the coronavirus has disrupted most workplaces, the social network, in a unifying move, has shifted the top-right quadrant of its homepage to share news about the coronavirus.

LinkedIn's Special Report: Coronavirus updates serve as a place where all members can find COVID-19 facts, economic impact and any good news, such as Amazon's call for 100,000 new distribution workers to serve the quarantine economy.

"It's heartening, in an environment where many are experiencing job risk and uncertainty, that other employers are stepping up wherever they can, and that companies like LinkedIn are using their platform to help get the word out," said Cheryl Fields Tyler, founder and chief executive officer of Blue Beyond Consulting, a company-culture specialist, headquartered in Castro Valley, Calif.

In a posting, Ryan Roslansky, head of product (and incoming chief executive, effective June 1), detailed how LinkedIn, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., unified the social network.

"Underlying everything, we remain the professional community that helps people adjust and thrive in a different normal," wrote Roslansky. "Our global team of 60-plus LinkedIn editors are curating news and perspectives about the coronavirus from trusted sources. This includes insights on the impact to the economy, how companies are responding, new policies that are being put in place and best practices for people and companies adjusting how they work."

In the coronavirus news feed, LinkedIn's content team not only gathers news but elevates thoughtful postings by members, expanding the sense of community.

Internal communications expert Alison Davis gave LinkedIn's curated global community their thumbs-up.

"LinkedIn has recognized that there's a burning need for information, not just on the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, but also advice on how we can best cope to disruptions in our work and every other aspect of our lives," said Davis, chief executive officer of consultancy, Davis & Company, in Glen Rock, N.J.

"My firm has been working with a number of companies to create similar content," she added. "Employees are requesting guidance and suggestions because their organizations are a trusted source of information-and, in a time when many people are working remotely, employees seek contact and reassurance from their leaders."

Fields Tyler of Blue Beyond is hopeful managers see this workplace upheaval as an opportunity to connect with their employees.

"This is an opportunity for employers to see and engage their people as whole people," she said. "A vast number of employees are dealing with working from home with children, have elderly parents who need their support, or feeling isolated from human connection."

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LinkedIn's coronavirus content builds a sense of community

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LinkedIn is a buttoned-up place where people go to work their specific, professional networks. But since the coronavirus has disrupted most workplaces, the social network, in a unifying move, has shifted the top-right quadrant of its homepage to share news about the coronavirus.

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How Zoom became so popular during social distancing 

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How Zoom became so popular during social distancing 

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Many people have found creative ways to virtually stay social using Zoom. Zoom, a video conferencing service, has risen to the top of app downloads. Zoom daily users spiked to 200 million in March.

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Examples of how communities are connecting despite lockdown

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Examples of how communities are connecting despite lockdown

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Balcony bingo using microphones, online forms of exercise.... for example, a ballet teacher is conducting her lessons online

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Coronavirus: from bingo to ballet, communities connect despite lockdown

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A surge in TikTok users during coronavirus

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A surge in TikTok users during coronavirus

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TikTok was an app used predominantly by teenagers. However, since the Covid-19 outbreak TikTok has seen a surge in new users using the app to stay connected.

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A person in a grass-covered suit lurks behind a wheelie bin before sprinting down a residential cul-de-sac. In a cramped bathroom, five housemates lip-sync in a limescale-stained bath. NHS staff dance on a deserted ward. A family of four performs a dance routine in a suburban garden. The father is out of time.

These are the faces of the UK's TikTok obsession. Across the country, in teenage bedrooms and house shares, Brits stuck at home by the coronavirus lockdown are firing up TikTok, propping their phones against walls and hitting record.

Founded in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming, TikTok is one of the most popular video-sharing apps in the world, downloaded more than 2bn times globally. Users create 15-second clips set to music or soundbites, which they can overlay with digital special effects.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, TikTok was predominantly favoured by British teenagers, who posted prank videos or the latest trending dance routine on it. But since the lockdown, TikTok has become a seething leviathan of user-generated content, chewing down our boredom, our fatigue and our fear and spitting them back at us in 15-second chunks, to be digested ad infinitum.

According to mobile industry analysts Sensor Tower, one in three Brits - 24 million people - has TikTok installed on their devices. The week before Boris Johnson announced the lockdown, 278,000 UK users downloaded TikTok on their phones, up 6% from the week previously. For the week of 23 March, when lockdown was enforced, UK installations surged by 34%. In lieu of going to bars, pubs or clubs, Britons would be staying in - and whiling away our time on TikTok.

I keep asking 18-year-old Madeline Mai-Davies what it's like to be an overnight TikTok celebrity, but all she can do is rattle off numbers for me. "So the bush-man video went viral on 16.5m views," Mai-Davies says giddily, "and the video where I pretended to surprise my boyfriend naked, now that's got 12.5m views."

After joining TikTok just six days ago, the unemployed waitress from Stevenage - like almost everyone else in the hospitality sector, coronavirus cost Mai-Davies her job - has 210,000 followers. In less time than it takes for a banana to go brown, she has accrued an online following double the circulation of some national newspapers. How does she feel? "To be fair, it has been a headfuck," she responds, before reeling off more figures.

Mai-Davies became a TikTok influencer after a video she posted of her boyfriend pretending to break the coronavirus lockdown - by creeping down their road in a grass-covered costume - went viral. (At the time of writing, it had 1.6m views.) Sudden fame has left Mai-Davies punch-drunk on her own celebrity. " This Morning got in contact with me," she says breathlessly. "They want me to FaceTime Holly and Phil. We've been in hundreds of articles in 20 different counties."

Becoming a TikTok influencer is now a viable career. "I want to be a content creator and make people laugh," says 24-year-old Akafi Ali, from London. Ali quit his job as a Sainsbury's cashier to pursue his TikTok dream: his videos satirise Somali culture or feature Ali on caterwauling form. "Everyone is going to the supermarket to grab toilet rolls!" Ali says in one video. "Are you serious? Just wash your ass!"

Ali says TikTok was already popular before coronavirus, but that the lockdown has supercharged it. "There are a lot more people jumping on," he says. With this influx of new influencers comes competition. "Before, if you uploaded a video, you could easily get 100,000 views in the first hour," says Ali. "But now you don't get on the For You page as easily as before." (For You is the landing page on TikTok, tailored to users' interests.)

Mai-Davies also plans to give the TikTok influencer thing a go and is posting daily videos. "When I go to bed, I think about ideas for tomorrow's video," she says. She tells me that some young girls have set up a fan page about her on Instagram. "They write, 'I love her so much, she's my Queen,'" she says. She sounds bemused. "This is so crazy. How have I got a fan page?"

The most important thing to understand about TikTok is that it is anarchic: it has no internal logic or guiding principle. Many TikTok videos are absurdist jokes. People surprise family members, impersonate celebrities or set up elaborate punchlines. The platform frequently has the surreal quality of a fever dream: videos riff on arcane internet ephemera or make nonsensical jokes. Non-sequiturs are common. Creativity is paramount.

"Surrealism is embedded into the DNA of the internet," says Kenneth Goldsmith, author of Wasting Time on the Internet. He sees TikTok's popularity as a natural reaction to the oppressive mania of a global lockdown - it is a pressure valve for people cooped up indoors. "The only response to an existential situation is absurdity and humour," Goldsmith says. "It brings us back to the darker side of surrealism."

On Instagram, we are primped and preening, on Twitter, loudmouthed and strident, but on TikTok, we can just be weird. Which makes it the perfect platform to ride out a pandemic that has nearly one-third of the world's population trapped at home. "It's therapeutic," Goldsmith explains. "If we look at Freud's theorising of the joke, the joke is always about showing humour in the face of death."

"I'm sort of embarrassed by it," says John Palmer of his TikTok account. The 17-year-old, from County Durham, specialises in the sort of hyper-surreal videos you'd expect to jump into through a chalk pavement drawing - if Mary Poppins used TikTok. Typically, Palmer's videos refer to popular memes or obscure internet jokes.

In one video, Palmer rips a much-memed Michelle Obama soundbite to make a joke about Prince William using coronavirus to leapfrog Charles in the line of succession. In another, he pretends to talk to the squadron of imaginary friends he's made in self-isolation. "It's sort of about finding the template, but pushing the meme as far as it will go, making it weirder and weirder, until it gets to a point where it doesn't make sense unless you've seen everything else before," Palmer says. "It spirals down into something else."

This is TikTok as pure subculture: in order to participate at Palmer's level, you need to have swum through digital water since childhood, a graceful stroke through each platform - Facebook, Vine, Instagram - that is easy and assured. There is no need for gatekeepers: the price of admission to this subculture is simply understanding the joke. "I show it to my parents and they don't get it," Palmer explains. "It's the meme culture of Gen Z. There's so much background to memes. You need to have lived through them."

As a TikTok old timer, Palmer is mortified by the platform's exploding popularity during the coronavirus pandemic. "I'm not looking forward to all of the adults discovering TikTok," he says with a sigh.

There's a simple reason why people are flocking to TikTok: it's a superb time waster. And in lieu of freedom or gainful employment, right now the only thing the British public has in abundance is time to burn.

"People are just looking for ways to keep themselves occupied," says TikTok creator Rachel Leary, 23, from Manchester. "Having TikTok on your phone is a really easy thing to do to pass the time. There's nothing else to do."

TikTok is designed to be addictive: you can scroll its dashboard for hours without ever running out of content. Its algorithm uses artificial intelligence to observe your interests and deliver videos that fit. Palmer tells me that since downloading TikTok on his phone, his screen time has gone up from seven hours a day to 12.

And when you finally tire of scrolling through TikTok's neverending dashboard, you can start making videos. Palmer only started posting his own videos when the coronavirus lockdown started. "I was locked in the house and had nothing else to do," he says. "I thought making a video might be something to do for a day to occupy myself." He sounds surprised. "But then I continued with it."

TikTok is a curative to boredom: there is always a new challenge to try or dance routine to learn. "TikTok is a space for the familiar play we've seen on the internet for decades now," says Ryan Milner of the College of Charleston. "Challenges that went around on YouTube or Facebook, like the ice-bucket challenge or the Kylie Jenner challenge, are now on TikTok."

And although many TikTok videos may appear inane on first viewing, making a successful TikTok video takes skill, care and creativity. "When you're writing the caption on TikTok, it really has to flow well and have the right syntax," Palmer says, "because if it's too confusing people don't like it or ignore it. It has to flow really well."

Leary reshot her most popular TikTok video - in which she pretends to DJ to the BBC News theme tune using household cleaning products - to improve her comic timing. "I didn't instantly look at it and think, that's so funny," she explains. "So I refilmed it and the second time I took a swig of wine. That's the part of the video that people have found the funniest and commented on." Her instinct was correct: the video has received 151,000 likes and was played on the BBC.

Another characteristic of TikTok that makes it well suited to the coronavirus lockdown: it is primarily an indoor platform. "TikTok has always been about being 15 and staying at home," explains David Nichols of the University of Melbourne. "That's the accepted backdrop. And now everyone has to stay at home! So TikTok was made for coronavirus. Not deliberately, but it was."

Unlike Instagram, where influencers swagger in front of a rotating backdrop of cocktail bars and tropical beaches, TikTokkers have always filmed themselves at home, in their bedrooms. "Instagram is more for like going out and getting drunk or going on holiday," Palmer says. "Instagram is superficial. But TikTok is just people posting stupid things and it's addictive, so you can keep going and going."

Many of the young people I speak to say a variant of the same thing: TikTok used to be uncool, until suddenly it wasn't. Palmer tells me that his peers would often write "Here as a joke" on their TikTok bios, because they were embarrassed to be on the app. "If TikTok came up in conversation, everyone would say, 'Urgh, no one goes on that,'" says 16-year-old Libby Atkinson, from Manchester.

Coronavirus supercharged a process that was already taking place: the process of TikTok becoming cool. "All my friends are coming on it because they have nothing to do," says Atkinson. As a result, more young people are jumping ship, from Instagram to TikTok. "Everyone is moving away from Instagram to TikTok," says Ali. "It's going to become the No 1 app that everyone is using."

This exodus of Gen Z from Instagram to TikTok mirrors the way millennials dumped Facebook in the 2010s. "Apps are generational in a half-decade sense," says Milner. "It makes perfect sense that Gen Z would have their own platform and it would be TikTok. If you look at Instagram and everyone on it is aged 25 and older, you want to find your own place."

Even as we abscond from Instagram in droves, TikTok would not exist without it. Milner says: "Something unique about TikTok is how much it is centred on the image of the creator and their physical body... That wouldn't have happened had Instagram not made us much more used to having our face and bodies being on camera." Instagram sandblasted away our self-consciousness: it made us comfortable with being on camera.

Where 16-year-olds go, adults follow. Celebrities including Lizzo, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber have posted TikTok videos during the lockdown. Non-celebrities are also flooding the app: Leary's mum has become hooked on the platform. "She keeps telling me that she can't stop scrolling," Leary laughs. "TikTok has made it into the mainstream now," says Nichols. "It's part of popular culture. A year ago, I'd have to explain what TikTok was to adults."

As TikTok grows up, it loses its countercultural edge. "I discovered it through my daughter," explains Wendy Paintain, a 54-year-old from Lichfield. "She was throwing herself around the living room, in front of her phone. I thought, what on earth is this rubbish? I downloaded it to have a look. And then I thought, actually, it's quite entertaining." She lets rip a loud laugh.

Paintain is the creative brains behind the Grandad Joe TikTok account, which features lighthearted videos of her father, Joe, 87, who is self-isolating with her during the pandemic, dancing and making jokes. The Grandad Joe account blew up after Paintain posted a video of Joe looking forlorn in a ransacked supermarket. It went viral, amassing 42.5m views.

Since then, Joe has been accepted into the TikTok top creators programme, been invited for TV appearances and has even started to make money from brand partnerships. "He's grown really quickly," says Paintain of her father's TikTok account. "He got 1.6 million followers in nine weeks. He's even got a blue tick!" (An indicator of a verified celebrity.) She takes me upstairs to speak to Joe, who is having a nap. "I can't understand why it's so popular, really," Joe tells me. "I'm an old fossil. I guess I'm having my 15 minutes of fame. Did you know that I might be going on the telly?"

Alongside these older content creators, official bodies have been using TikTok to publish public health information during the coronavirus pandemic. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has uploaded TikTok videos urging people to stay at home; the World Health Organization has 1.4 million followers on the app. During the Easter bank holiday weekend, when many feared people may break lockdown rules, due to the warm weather, the UK government ran ads on TikTok, asking people to stay at home.

Coronavirus trends float through the app, like driftwood. There's the #iwillsurvivechallenge (where users wash their hands to the Gloria Gaynor anthem), and the #stayathomechallenge, where NHS workers and TikTok creators urge users to stay indoors, sharing exercise routines or cooking tips to pass the time. (The #stayathomechallenge has more than 2.6bn views.) Bored in the House, the song by Tyga and up-and-coming rapper Curtis Roach, has become TikTok's unofficial coronavirus anthem: more than 2m videos have been created using the song, with more than 923 million views globally.

All coronavirus content on TikTok has a banner linking to reputable news sources. The app's UK general manager, Richard Waterworth, says: "We [have] introduced a range of in-app features, notifications and safety measures specifically designed to elevate credible and accurate information from trusted sources." But preventing the spread of fake news can be difficult to enforce in practice: conspiracy theories linking 5G to coronavirus are easy to find.

Healthcare workers have also turned to the app. "Traditional TikTok was a dance platform," says NHS doctor and former Love Island contestant Alex George. The 29-year-old has 104,000 followers on TikTok, where he posts videos explaining how coronavirus is transmitted or the correct way to wash your hands. "But that's not true any more. People are engaging with health content."

Coronavirus has helped TikTok to grow up. What was once a platform for uninhibited free play, detached from the cares and concerns of the outside world, has become outward facing. Although this is not the first time that TikTokkers have been civic-minded - during the 2019 Australian bushfires, users ridiculed Australian prime minister Scott Morrison's handling of the crisis and raised money for affected communities - coronavirus has pushed TikTok into a new prominence. TikTok itself has pledged €62m to support European healthcare workers and communities affected by the pandemic.

George is hopeful that his videos will communicate key public health messages to a younger audience. "Young people don't engage with traditional media forms," he says, "but they might watch my TikTok videos and educate their grandparents about how to wash their hands properly."

Sorcha Mackenzie joined TikTok long before coronavirus. She did so for the same reason many other people will be downloading it right now: because she was lonely.

"At the time, I was pretty socially isolated," explains Mackenzie, a 28-year-old artist from Melbourne. "I was running this gallery across town, in the docklands, and it's a pretty desolate area. Not many people come there. I would be there all day, until late at night, on my own every single day." She was rapidly hooked. "It made the world feel like a very big place," Mackenzie explains. "You feel interconnected."

Mackenzie believes the new TikTok users are reaching out for the same thing she craved during her days in that abandoned Melbourne dockyard: a sense of community. "It makes perfect sense to me why TikTok has boomed and so many people have downloaded it at the moment," Mackenzie says. "It offers a salve to isolation."

As the British public hunkers down at home, alone, in some cases literally returning to the bedrooms of its youth, TikTok connects us to an online community of people who are also muddling along as best as they can. "It feels like a safe place," says Atkinson. "You don't feel like you're being judged."

The sublime and the serious, the silly and the strange: TikTok is the perfect platform for these times. As the world changes, people who'd never have dreamed of posting videos of themselves dancing in their pyjamas online or lip-syncing in their kitchen, think: why not?

"It feels like such an uncomfortable, incredibly bizarre moment," says Mackenzie, "and there's such a big shift in everything. People are forced to take stock of what is important. They lose that sense of ego or barrier of caring about what other people think about them." TikTok allows us to see others and be seen ourselves. It brings levity to otherwise dark and anxiety-filled days. It lets the air in.

Layer by layer, the coronavirus pandemic has peeled away our braggadocio and our hubristic plans for the future and returned all of us to a childlike state. We sit at home, like children, and wait to be told what to do. And while we wait, we play online.
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How coronavirus helped TikTok find its voice

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A person in a grass-covered suit lurks behind a wheelie bin before sprinting down a residential cul-de-sac. In a cramped bathroom, five housemates lip-sync in a limescale-stained bath. NHS staff dance on a deserted ward. A family of four performs a dance routine in a suburban garden. The father is out of time.

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Online community groups help each other through coronavirus outbreak

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Online community groups help each other through coronavirus outbreak

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This video demonstrates how online communities are providing support in a multitude of ways. For example, Facebook groups have been used as a platform to offer help during the pandemic.

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Online community groups help each other through coronavirus outbreak

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One World; Together at Home raised $127m for coronavirus relief efforts. The concert was organised by WHO and Lady Gaga and featured performances from global music stars at home whilst they were self-isolating.

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Global Citizen, organisers of the eight-hour One World: Together at Home livestreamed benefit concert, have announced that the show raised $127m for coronavirus relief efforts.

The concert, co-organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Lady Gaga, featured intimate performances from global music stars at home as they self-isolated during the coronavirus crisis, including the Rolling Stones and Billie Eilish. Songs were interspersed with messages from actors such as Matthew McConaughey and Lupita Nyong'o, as well as other figures including Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

While the two-hour television broadcast portion - also screened by the BBC in the UK with additional performances from Paul McCartney, Tom Jones and more - was framed as a gift to essential workers, the preceding six hours invited donations, with the bulk of the cash coming from corporate sponsors. The WHO's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund will get $55.1m, while $72.8m will go to charities such as food banks and housing providers. The WHO fund is used to allocate tests and treatment, and to support development of a vaccine.

Inevitably, the fundraising took on a political tinge, coming shortly after Donald Trump withdrew US funding for the WHO. Speaking to Variety, Hugh Evans, chief executive of Global Citizen, said: "It is not uncommon for world leaders of all stature to try to point fingers, because politics is in some instances about survival. And so I think that it's not so surprising that it has become a political football. But I think that what we have to remember is that there's no second World Health Organisation. There's only one."

Beyoncé and Alicia Keys each highlighted how the disease was disproportionately affecting African Americans. Keys cited a study that found 33% of those hospitalised with the virus in the US were black, despite African Americans counting for 13% of the US population. "Pre-existing health conditions and lack of access to information and affordable healthcare, and economic and societal circumstances, are some of the reasons why it's most prevalent amongst communities of colour," she said.

Beyoncé, who voiced support for, among others, essential workers across healthcare, sanitation, said: "Black Americans disproportionately belong to these essential parts of the workforce that do not have the luxury of working from home, and African American communities at large have been severely affected by this crisis ... this virus is killing black people and in an alarmingly high rate here in America." She cited a report that found 57% of fatal cases in her home city of Houston were African American.
One World: Together at Home review - locked-down stars lift the spirits
The show was well received, with Piers Morgan, who had previously criticised Lady Gaga's involvement, apologising to her for his earlier comments. "This was a great initiative that raised a fortune, entertained people, & will help save lives," he tweeted. "It was also a perfect illustration of a major star using their profile properly in this crisis. Congrats & sorry for originally questioning it."

Lady Gaga tweeted after the show: "Thank you with all of my heart for watching #TogetherAtHome, sharing in a global moment of kindness with each other, and spreading positive and loving intentions. We love you."
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One World: Together at Home concert raises $127m for coronavirus relief

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Global Citizen, organisers of the eight-hour One World: Together at Home livestreamed benefit concert, have announced that the show raised $127m for coronavirus relief efforts. The concert, co-organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Lady Gaga, featured intimate performances from global music stars at home as they self-isolated during the coronavirus crisis, including the Rolling Stones and Billie Eilish.

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The Coronavirus crisis is showing us how to live online

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The Coronavirus crisis is showing us how to live online

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The virus is forcing us to use the internet to connect with one another, share information and resources, and come up with collective solutions to urgent problems.

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We've always hoped that our digital tools would create connections, not conflict. We have a chance to make it happen.

Credit... Rebekka Dunlap

For someone who has barely left his house, I've had a shockingly busy few days.

First, there were the hyperactive group texts, which started up last week with dozens of messages a day from friends about the latest coronavirus news, along with photos of our overstuffed pantries. Then came the FaceTime calls from friends and relatives who were also stuck indoors and trying to stave off loneliness.

Last weekend, in between trips to the grocery store, I checked up on some friends using Twitter D.M.s, traded home-cooking recipes on Instagram, and used WhatsApp to join a blockwide support group with my neighbors. I even put on my Oculus virtual reality headset, and spent a few hours playing poker in a V.R. casino with friendly strangers.

I expected my first week of social distancing to feel, well, distant. But I've been more connected than ever. My inboxes are full of invitations to digital events - Zoom art classes, Skype book clubs, Periscope jam sessions. Strangers and subject-matter experts are sharing relevant and timely information about the virus on social media, and organizing ways to help struggling people and small businesses. On my feeds, trolls are few and far between, and misinformation is quickly being fact-checked.

There is no use sugarcoating the virus, which has already had devastating consequences for people all over the world, and may get much worse in the months ahead. There will be more lives lost, businesses closed and communities thrown into financial hardship. Nobody is arguing that what is coming will be fun, easy or anything remotely approaching normal for a very long time.

But if there is a silver lining in this crisis, it may be that the virus is forcing us to use the internet as it was always meant to be used - to connect with one another, share information and resources, and come up with collective solutions to urgent problems. It's the healthy, humane version of digital culture we usually see only in schmaltzy TV commercials, where everyone is constantly using a smartphone to visit far-flung grandparents and read bedtime stories to kids.

Already, social media seems to have improved, with more reliable information than might have been expected from a global pandemic. And while the ways we're substituting for in-person interaction aren't perfect - over the next few months in America, there may be no phrase uttered more than "Can someone mute?" - we are seeing an explosion of creativity as people try to use technology as a bridge across physical distances.

Just look at what's happening in Italy, where homebound adults are posting mini-manifestos on Facebook, while restless kids flock to multiplayer online games like Fortnite. Or see what's happening in China, where would-be partyers have invented " cloud clubbing," a new kind of virtual party in which D.J.s perform live sets on apps like TikTok and Douyin while audience members react in real time on their phones. Or observe how we're coping in the United States, where groups are experimenting with new kinds of socially distanced gatherings: virtual yoga classes, virtual church services, virtual dinner parties.

These are the kinds of creative digital experiments we need, and they are coming at a time when we need them more than ever.

We are on the brink of what Vox's Ezra Klein calls a "social recession" - an epidemic of loneliness and isolation brought on by the virus. The social recession will hit certain groups especially hard - older people, people with disabilities, people who live alone. But we will all feel isolated to some degree. And as long as it remains unwise to gather in physical spaces, we will need to create virtual spaces that can sustain us.

Building a virtual world to replace a broken physical one is not a new idea. It has been a staple in sci-fi narratives for decades, including classics like "Snow Crash" and "Ready Player One." Many of these stories are dystopian in nature - in them, virtual reality is simply an escape from a real world that is falling apart.

But digital tools can also help strengthen our real-world ties if we use them the right way.

One thing we know for certain is that actively participating in online culture is far better than passively consuming it. Research shows that people who use social media actively - by sending messages, leaving comments or talking in group chats, for example - report being happier than those who simply scroll through their feeds, absorbing news stories and viral videos. Netflix binges and YouTube rabbit holes are fine for escapism, but if you're looking to find solace on the internet, lurking alone won't cut it - you need to contribute.

We also know that not all platforms are created equal. With so much alarming information flying around, private group messages and videoconferences are likely to produce calmer, more nourishing interactions than public platforms like Twitter and Facebook, both of which are designed to amplify content that is outrageous, divisive or otherwise highly engaging.

All over the country, citizen technologists are using digital tools to strengthen their offline communities. In San Bernardino, Calif., David Perez created a Facebook group called California Coronavirus Alerts to share localized information with his neighbors. A group of public-school teachers in Mason, Ohio, created a Google Doc to share ideas about how to keep teaching students during a state-ordered school closure. In the Bay Area, where I live, people are building databases to keep track of which seniors need help having groceries and prescriptions delivered.

It's possible that this boom in prosocial internet behavior is temporary, and that the grifters and trolls who tend to glom onto major news events will swarm in to ruin it.

But it's also possible that after spending years using technologies that mostly seemed to push us apart, the coronavirus crisis is showing us that the internet is still capable of pulling us together.

That's why it's so important that everyone - especially older people, students and people in low-income communities - has access to these tools. The digital divide is real, and in the coming months, those without internet access or devices that can run newer software will be shut out of many of the digital communities we're building to support one another.

In addition to other economic rescue measures, it may be time for a kind of global Geek Squad, an army of tech-savvy people who can deliver free or deeply discounted devices to people who don't have them, and teach them (from a safe distance) how to join Zoom conferences, send and receive text messages, and make FaceTime calls.

Recently, I called Jaron Lanier, the author and technologist who coined the term "virtual reality." Mr. Lanier, who has been experimenting with building virtual communities for years, said he understood why the idea of moving our offline institutions onto the internet made some people uncomfortable.

"We saw the internet turn into this weird, dark manipulation machine," he said. "Naturally, we worry that this could be another way to become lost or crazy."

But he also said there was reason for cautious optimism, given the creative ways people are already finding to move their real-world support systems online.

"The obvious thing to say" about the coronavirus, Mr. Lanier said, "is that people will suffer from a sense of isolation. But there might be some good things. It could reintroduce people to their families. It might make people a little more grounded. It helps you reappreciate the wealth we have in a place like a home. It's kind of a revelation that we have the good fortune to even be able to do this."

Mr. Lanier is right. As the virus forces us indoors, we should be thinking of ways to invest in our digital spaces, and build robust virtual connections that can replace some of the physical proximity we're losing, as well as mobilizing to support our real-world communities in a time of enormous need.

We can use technology to meet this crisis, rather than just distracting ourselves from it.

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The Coronavirus Crisis Is Showing Us How to Live Online

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We've always hoped that our digital tools would create connections, not conflict. We have a chance to make it happen. For someone who has barely left his house, I've had a shockingly busy few days.

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US's digital divide "is going to kill people"

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US's digital divide "is going to kill people"

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In late March, 62% of counties across the US did not have the governments minimum download speed for broadband internet. Whilst COVID-19 is forcing the world to go online, those who do not have access to digital technology will be "cut off from society"

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The Covid-19 crisis is exposing how the cracks in the US's creaking digital infrastructure are potentially putting lives at risk, exclusive research shows.

With most of the country on lockdown and millions relying on the internet for work, healthcare, education and shopping, research by M-Lab, an open source project which monitors global internet performance, showed that internet service slowed across the country after the lockdowns.

"This is going to kill people," said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder of M-Lab.

In late March, most people in 62% of countiesacross the US did not have the government's minimum download speed for broadband internet, according to M-Lab.

Between February and mid March, when the pandemic was only just beginning to hit the US, there was a 10% increase in how many counties saw download speeds fall below the government standard, representing about one in 10 US counties, M-Lab found.

"Now that people's livelihoods, schools and lives, are literally on the line, we can't survive," Meinrath said. "These communities that are underserved are not going to be able to transition to an online workplace or school environment."

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Map of internet download speeds

Internet service providers (ISPs) have said networks are performing well despite increases in traffic, but the M-Lab analyses of IP address connection speeds found those claims conceal what is happening at an individual level.

ISPs are failing to meet the US government's standard for download speed, which impacts uses such as video streaming, for most of their customers, according to M-Lab. In 29.4% of counties, most customers are not getting the government-required upload speed.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says 21 million Americans lack high-speed internet access but other studies have estimated the number at close to 42 million.

'One report found 42 million Americans were without internet'

Then, there is the wide swath of the country which has no internet at all.

The FCC said more than 21.3 million people don't have any internet access, though many experts think this is an undercount because the FCC's reporting system is flawed. Broadband Now, a company which helps people find ISPs, said in a February report the number is close to 42 million. Microsoft researchers have pinned the number without access at 163 million Americans.

To address that gap, students without access to internet have been forced to roam their home towns looking for open wifi networks. Facing a remote learning crisis, some school districts are paying for their students' internet to make remote learning possible.

A school in Texas set up a stationary wifi hotspot in the parking lot of its football stadium where students can park and connect. In Prince George's county, just east of Washington DC, the school district plans to distribute laptops to students who don't have a computer at home and pay for internet for students who do not have it. Miami-Dade county public schools have distributed more than 82,000 laptops to students.

'Bronx county, the poorest of New York's boroughs, saw a sharp drop in broadband speeds'

The internet is key to accessing information about the coronavirus. Human Rights Watch said that closing the digital divide was necessary to preserve human rights during the outbreak.

People seeking medical care are being told to avoid hospitals and doctors' offices in favor of video or phone calls with their doctors. And while a delayed connection might be irritating in an office video conference, in a healthcare setting, it can lead to worse quality care. In May 2017, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) urged the US government to recognize broadband access as a social determinant to health.

"The solutions we have to shelter in place, but carry on, it just doesn't work," said Meinrath.

After looking at the internet connection speeds for individual IP addresses, M-Lab found that more than 50% of customers in 325 US counties stopped getting internet download speeds that met the government definition of broadband between the final two weeks of February and the final two weeks of March. The research was conducted and visualized by a team from M-Lab; the digital equity group, X-Lab; and the non-profit, Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

The drop in connectivity is affecting both rural and urban areas with populations already underserved by the medical system or racked with poverty.

Bronx county in New York, the poorest of New York City's five boroughs, has witnessed a sharp drop in broadband speeds. More than 1.41 million people live in the Bronx, a 42.4 sq mile (110 sq km) area, and their median broadband speed dropped 10Mbps - megabits per second.

ISPs must also deliver a connection which has a minimum 3Mbps upload speed to meet the FCC standard for broadband.

In a household where students are being asked to teleconference their teachers while their parents dip in and out of work meetings on Zoom and other platforms, the upload speed needed is far beyond the 3Mbps minimum.

M-Lab found the number of counties which did not reach the government standard for upload speed increased by 4.4% between February and March.

Title for internet upload speed map

Map of internet upload speeds

Meinrath, a professor at Penn State University, experienced this firsthand when his internet "failed miserably" while he was on a teleconference, coincidentally, with network engineers about network capacity. He suspected it was because one of his children was probably teleconferencing with a teacher during his work call.

ISPs such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T have noted an increase in traffic but said networks are performing well.

﻿These companies are also among the 650 ISPs which have agreed not to terminate service for customers and businesses who are unable to pay their bills because of the economic cost of the coronavirus outbreak as part of the FCC's "Keep America Connected Pledge".

In Congress, the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, included $2bn for schools and libraries to help keep people connected in a draft version of an economic stimulus bill responding to coronavirus, but it was scrubbed out of the final legislation. Instead $200m is being directed to telehealth initiatives and $125m to distance learning.

'If you don't have internet access you're cut off from society'

Gigi Sohn, a former senior staff member at the FCC, said this was far from enough money to meet the broadband needs of people during the coronavirus outbreak. "Congress didn't take it seriously," said Sohn.

People fighting to shrink the digital divide, like Sohn, are concerned the increase in internet use is hitting a nation that already had significant disparities in broadband access.

"It's a shame it's taken a pandemic for people to realize if you don't have internet access you're cut off from participation in society," said Sohn, a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy.

Sohn, Meinrath and others have testified that the digital divide was exacerbating disparities in the US, but it's the coronavirus outbreak which has brought these concerns to the forefront.

"Now we have something where actually we have no choice but to rely on the connectivity we were told was there, but actually it isn't," Meinrath said. "Now that's coming crashing down."
Topics

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US's digital divide 'is going to kill people' as Covid-19 exposes inequalities

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The Covid-19 crisis is exposing how the cracks in the US's creaking digital infrastructure are potentially putting lives at risk, exclusive research shows. With most of the country on lockdown and millions relying on the internet for work, healthcare, education and shopping, research by M-Lab, an open source project which monitors global internet performance, showed that internet service slowed across the country after the lockdowns.

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NHS doctors thank the public for self-isolating

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NHS doctors thank the public for self-isolating

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This video shows the NHS staff thank the public for their claps, and they clap and thank the public for following self-isolation measures.

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'Thank you': NHS staff clap for public staying at home during coronavirus

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Live: Britons clapping to thank NHS workers for their help during coronavirus outbreak  | ITV News

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Offers advice for people to stay digitally connected and the benefits of going online during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Supporting older people with technology can be hard when you can't meet up face-to-face.

If you are trying to help someone with a new device or tech questions, you may find the following tips useful:

Make sure you know what they want to achieve - don't overcomplicate things too early.

Make sure you know how the device works so you can show them effectively. Lots of devices have online tutorials which you can explore on older people's behalf.

Be aware that different people have different learning styles and get the balance between demonstrating, providing instructions and answering questions that suits the individual.

Don't make any assumptions about what they already know.

Be patient, don't overload and make sure you go at the pace of the learner.

Be ready to repeat a learning session and respond to queries that come up as they start using the device on their own and come up with questions.

Avoid jargon - not everyone knows what 'apps' are or how you 'swipe'.

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Connecting with digital devices during coronavirus

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Supporting older people with technology can be hard when you can't meet up face-to-face. If you are trying to help someone with a new device or tech questions, you may find the following tips useful: Make sure you know what they want to achieve - don't overcomplicate things too early.

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Clap for our carers set an all time record for internet traffic

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Clap for our carers set an all time record for internet traffic

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The Clap For Our Carers event set an all-time record for internet traffic, Virgin Media has said.

More people were uploading videos of applause and other celebrations for NHS workers than at any time in the past, the network said.

The campaign saw people across the country urged to open their doors and windows and make as much noise as possible to celebrate healthworkers who are caring for those with Covid-19.

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Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Around 8pm, as the event began and households across the country put down devices to take part in the celebration, traffic sharply dipped, according to the network. Downstream traffic - where devices are receiving data - sharply fell as people left their houses.

But soon after that upstream traffic surged, presumably as people flocked to share the videos and photographs they had taken of the celebration.

Footage of the events spread quickly around social media as videos showed entire streets take part in the event, and celebrations from across the country.

Upstream traffic - data sent by people when using programmes such as video calls - has increased significantly during daytime hours, as the public stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown.

Virgin Media said upstream traffic on its network is up more than 150 per cent on the previous month, due to a rise in video conferencing and digital classrooms.

Over the past two weeks, data use on the Virgin Media network has risen gradually, with a "new normal" emerging as usage begins to level out, the company added.

Although daytime traffic levels have climbed, they remain below those experienced in the evening peak.

Despite increased demand overall, Virgin Media insists its network has "ample capacity".
Additional reporting by Press Association

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Clap For Our Carers sets all-time record for internet traffic

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The Clap For Our Carers event set an all-time record for internet traffic, Virgin Media has said. More people were uploading videos of applause and other celebrations for NHS workers than at any time in the past, the network said.