The effects of Covid-19 have been seen throughout the world, but the U.S has been hit particularly hard. Just about everyone in the country was working remotely at some point during the quarantine. The other day I was taking a break from my computer and treating myself to some Lazarus Naturals CBD when I realized just how much of an impact quarantine has had on the level of computer literacy in the U.S.
Computer literacy doesn’t mean knowing how to read articles on the computer, it means knowing how to use your computer. We live in a society that is very much driven by technology and without understanding how to use your computer beyond checking an email or social-media platform is highly beneficial.
Many Americans actively used computers before quarantine, but it wasn’t until they had to learn how to actually work on their computer that they did anything besides check their facebook and surf the web. I would like to share my personal experience with quarantine and how it made me, and many other Americans, more computer literate than we were in pre-covid times.
Pre-Quarantine Computer Time
Before the quarantine happened, I was happily working on developing a piece of property I had purchased in the mojave desert. It was a beautiful 17-acre parcel in the middle of the desert. I was completely isolated from the world and loved nothing more than spending my days developing the land in hopes that it would one day be a working farm.
All was well and beautiful. My dog and I were happy as can be and didnt have a care in the world. I did occasionally drive into the city about two hours away to work for a pretty evil art dealer. I say evil because he exploited his workers and paid them the absolute minimum, to work in unbelievably harsh conditions. But, because my living expenses were virtually non-existent, I didn’t mind popping into town a couple days a week to work my buns off.
In those times, when I sat at my computer, it meant it was time to turn-off, tune-out, and bask in the pleasure of mindlessly surfing the internet. It wouldn’t be long before those days were gone, probably for good.
How Does Zoom Work Again?
It was mid-february and though covid-19 was taking the world by storm, quarantine orders had not yet been put in place. I was getting sick of working for the evil art dealer and found myself a job teaching kids how to play music. This job was very much preferable to busting my hump moving large pieces of art and driving countless hours from warehouse to warehouse.
Teaching was going great. My students were sweet, dedicated, and showed promise on their respective instruments. But, this in person learning process was becoming more and more dangerous due to the potential of being exposed to covid. Before long, classes were cancelled and all of us teachers were left scratching our heads wondering what to do.
Not long after the schools closed down, we all received an email stating that the school would be switching over to online learning. Like so many Americans, everything we were working on would have to be communicated and conveyed through an online platform called Zoom. None of us had even heard of this platform before, and suddenly the entire country was using it.
There were a myriad of problems in the beginning. Not only was it hard to communicate and adapt teaching styles to be appropriate for online learning, there were problems with hackers and weirdos making their way into private meetings. This is when it became obvious that I had to learn to do more than just mindlessly stare at a computer screen. I needed to find a way to keep these hackers from infiltrating our online classroom and showing inappropriate photos.
How Remote Working Forced Us To learn Our Computers
I have never had the desire to do anything more with my computer than watch movies, surf the web, and chat with friends, but when things started getting weird with work I knew I had to take action. These hackers were messing with my bread and butter, and papa don’t mess around when it comes to his butter.
These guys were melting my butter, and throwing my bread on the floor and something had to be done. I started taking coding classes immediately and started looking for ways to hack back. Unfortunately, I showed no promise as a hacker and these people kept showing up in my online classroom showing dirty pictures.
I knew this wouldn’t last much longer, so I contacted all the mothers of all the children in my class and told them what was going on. One of them happened to be a hacker herself, and sent these guys a virus that shutdown their entire system. She said she had no experience in hacking before covid, and that’s when I realized just how much quarantine influenced the computer literacy of Americans everywhere.
