expanding audiences – why digital knowledge is one of Corona’s blessings

As we enter week 10 of lockdown, the perks of isolation are admittedly few and far between. Once the novelty of reading for pleasure and running around your local park has worn off and the final university assignments have been handed in, many, like myself, are left feeling deflated and somewhat lacking in motivation. As someone who hates the idea of lying in bed all day, I felt like the stimulation of the outside world was a million miles away. Feeling deflated by the lack of interaction and the absence of opportunities to keep my brain ticking away, I spent the days after handing in my final essay in a frustrated and agitated mental state. Basically, I was throwing a temper tantrum at the age of twenty-one.  

However, I decided that keeping busy was the way forward. Even when I was complaining about the number of essays and readings I had left to, my assignments provided me with structure and purpose – feelings which I have since realised I crave in my day to day life, regardless of whether they come from academic schedules or not. It was then that I stepped back and realised how many learning opportunities I had been exposed to through social media ads, group chats, university emails and even word of mouth as I chatted to my neighbours over the garden fence. The vast sources of digital knowledge that I would usually neglect because ‘I don’t have enough time’ were waiting for me to devote my time and energy to them.  

Online museum and art gallery tours such as the National Portrait Gallery’s virtual BP Portrait Awards 2020, and a complete tour of The British Museum allow you to virtually immerse yourself in exhibitions from your home study-space, whether it be a desk, your kitchen table, or your bed at 2am. The National Theatre are showing free full-length plays on their YouTube channel every Thursday, So It Goes magazine are offering £1 downloads of their previous editions which usually cost £15, and fitness moguls like Gym Shark and Orangetheory are offering free gym classes via Instagram. Whatever your preferred leisure activity may be, it seems that many places have stepped up and learnt to cater to ‘the new normal’.  

Academia is also a field that doesn’t have to be neglected if you don’t want it to be, although I don’t blame you if you don’t want to read another journal article for a good three months. Universities such as Harvard and Princeton are offering free/discounted online courses and most impressively, The National Archives are now free for all to access online with records ranging from ‘Famous Wills’ to ‘British Army War Diaries’. Many universities have also stepped up and provided students with increased access to online libraries and digital archives. Although their main initiative for this was to allow students to complete their exams from home, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use an online library to read Tina Fey’s autobiography.  

This expansive range of knowledge and activities to sink my teeth into has also made me realise that the audience exposed to these resources has expanded massively. With inequality remaining overtly prevalent in many segments of society, factors like race, social class, gender, income levels, and home environment can mean that some people are left disadvantaged in terms of their exposure to both educational and recreational facilities. One benefit of lockdown-induced digitalisation is that anyone with a smart-phone, laptop or similar device can too submerge themselves in a virtual life drawing class or yoga session. I realise that I am lucky enough to be typing this very article on a laptop whilst researching on my iPhone – devices to which many don’t have access. But the number of people now exposed to online sources of knowledge has drastically increased. 

Lockdown has, in many ways, accelerated our digital futures, as the informally-named ‘Zoom Boom’ has allowed us to disregard many barriers to knowledge. Think of how many times money, the weather, a clash in schedule or trouble getting there has stopped you from going to a lecture, an exhibition or a gig, and now we can do this all from the comfort of our own home. 

This reduction in inequality and the mass audience that these digital resources are able to reach will hopefully be a step in the right direction. Introverts feel able to engage in discussions and events that they may normally find anxiety-inducing; online courses, such as those being offered by Princeton University, which are usually financially unfeasible, are now accessible to anyone with a thirst for knowledge. The obstacles to learning are clearly destructible, so why should it have taken a global pandemic to reach this broad audience?  

Whilst only 58.8% of the world’s population are online, this new prioritisation surrounding the digital world and its capabilities should hopefully encourage tech-giants to realise the potential of digital resources for educating and enriching the lives of the masses. 

I am not claiming that the rest of our lives should be lived via video chat or online reading, as many of these activities should be seen as a temporary solution rather that a permanent replacement. If I could be reading a library-borrowed copy of my favourite book in a busy coffee shop right now, then I would be. But I am also learning that the digital world can become even more of an accessible and beneficial way to achieve the things you want in life. I hope that this screen binge is met with a screen purge, but I also hope that the daily Google searches for things to keep my mind occupied do not become a thing of the past.  

Some days, I wish to lie and read nothing that requires more than monotonous scrolling and the odd exhale of air laughter as I see another funny tweet about being stuck inside with your parents. But other days I want to listen to a live music set or explore streets other than those that make up my local housing estates – and thanks to this shift in society, I am able to do this without the worry that I’ll dip into my food money for the week. 

Equal access to art, theatre, journalism, exercise, literary material and other enriching activities should be prioritised, even when this is all over.