It’s tempting to dismiss such bold statements
by any major tech boss as hyperbole – perhaps
as comments bound to age badly as we
all gradually slink back into pre-pandemic
habits. But such accelerations in digital
transformation haven’t been seen solely in the
US, or noticed purely by the manufacturers
of some of your favorite consumer hardware
and software.
Lloyds Bank in the United Kingdom, for
example, recently suggested that the 1.5
million more people who had started using
the Internet in that country in the space of 12
months equated to 95% of Britons now being
online. Retail transformation managing
director at the bank, Stephen Noakes, said:
“In 2020, predictive modeling indicated that it
would take to 2025 for 58% of the UK to have
high digital capability. In 2021, 60% of the
UK now have this level of digital capability;
we have made ive years’ worth of progress
in one.”
BUT NOT EVERYONE IS LIKELY
TO BE BASKING IN A POST-COVID
DIGITAL PARADISE
As fascinating a pastime as it is to ponder what
kind of world the opportunities and traumas
of the coronavirus situation will leave us, it is
also one fraught with diiculty. After all, your
social media feeds probably tell their own
story of COVID-19-era polarization in the face
of lingering restrictions. For every person who
appreciates the opportunity for relection and
introspection that being “furloughed” may have
brought them, there’s seemingly someone
else expressing strident anti-lockdown