Covid-19 indeed has changed the way we approach everything. Initially, when the pandemic broke out, the government decided to lock down the whole country to curb the spread of the virus. Admittedly, all of us were worried initially about staying at home without going out. However, later on, as these lockdowns became more regular, we started to look at the lockdowns with a lesser worrying attitude. During the lockdown, many of us had access to various digital platforms that we can immerse ourselves in and pass the time. Thanks to the internet and television, the lockdown is not as daunting as it is supposed to be. My engagement with these digital platforms during these past few months brought a couple of changes in the way I look at things. All the digital platforms starting from social media, news outlets, entertainment channels, and others, have taken initiatives to battle against the coronavirus.
Entertainment channels have taken a step to battle against the virus out of respect for humanity. I mainly observed this with many channels. Whenever I was trying to immerse myself in a movie on the television, suddenly an advertisement shows up showing the procedure to wash hands and how to greet others and other precautionary measures that can help curb the virus spread. This advertisement was an advertisement by the channel itself, not an advertisement that was promoted by the Government of India or any other product. They started to air these advertisements in place of commercial advertisements for a social cause. That was when I realized that these channels are not entirely oblivious to social problems. They do have some good side to them. This was particularly interesting to me since we often do not get a chance for the entertainment and news channels when they engage in these righteous acts. I always viewed them as commercial entities solely aimed to make money.
Often, celebrities were the ones who raised awareness about the problems in their social media accounts and television commercials. Using celebrities to raise awareness was a compelling way since they have a huge following on social media and real life. Some groups of people revere celebrities to an extreme extent. There might be a couple of people who might not realize the potential impact of the virus and hence not take precautions. When the celebrity they admire talks about the virus, these people have their perspective changed. Celebrities have the power to dictate the actions of their fans/audiences. In this case, the fans start to take precautions against the virus. The Government of India also collaborated with several celebrities from all languages and developed awareness advertisements for all the languages and aired them on all channels. I searched on the internet about if these celebrities charged any amount for these awareness campaigns. I could not find any resource that says that. I got a chance to see the good side of these celebrities.
I came across several headlines during this pandemic that enabled me to see the apathy side of society’s many building blocks. Many firms from various domains ranging from software to manufacturing, have been laying off people during the pandemic. Some companies have started to go into severe losses in this pandemic. Going ahead without layoffs might result in bankruptcy. I can agree with that, hence firing people then is justified. A few companies out there that made profits in billions and are yet firing people in this pandemic period. These companies can sustain for a long time even with losses, and yet they fired people. Companies already knew that this pandemic is particularly devastating to the middle class and low-income people. However, they chose to fire people just for the sake of keeping their reserves intact. There were several alternatives that these companies could have taken during these harsh times to sustain the families. However, unfortunately, not many companies did this.
During these past few months, I observed several trends in the households that I know. When the pandemic initially broke out, everyone in the family used to check on the news every two-three hours and start freaking out on seeing one new case in the whole district. Well, the media channels were giving hourly updates per district and many others. In the initial days, it was fine; we would start to worry and take a few precautions against the virus. Later on, as life caught on with us, and when my parents needed to go outside for work, they avoided the news altogether. Instead of staying up to date with the real numbers, they chose to deny it. I can understand the situation they are in. When you are actively following the numbers every day and need to go out into the real world, it can be daunting that you might catch the virus. Just like my parents, all my grandparents and uncles started to avoid the news media channels, to try and stay not updated about the crisis. I do not think that the media should not report numbers. Instead, it should have reported them somewhat less frequently.
During this pandemic, tons of misinformation is being spread on the internet without any clear motive. All the digital platforms starting from YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and many others, are trying to minimize this spread of misinformation and are trying to verify it using fact-checkers. Even though everyone out there is requesting everyone to fact check a piece of information before following it or forwarding it, the fake news is still being spread. In a family group that I’m a part of in Whatsapp, several messages get exchanged every day, saying that “Mix ginger and garlic to create a self vaccine,” and so on. As expected, the people who forward these messages are 40+ years old. Before I could tell them that the article shared was “fake,” a couple of my nephews around 7-8 years old responded, saying to fact check before sharing a piece of information. I could not help but ponder why the adults who are far more experienced than us share these kinds of fake information.
Media has a very crucial role to play in this pandemic. It has the power to report the truths and point out the faults of an existing plan to combat coronavirus. In the initial phase, the numbers reporting was fine and helped in analyzing what regions needed more testing, and so on. During the initial phases, the media also covered other important things (not about coronavirus). However, as time progressed forward, the media started to cover several unimportant things as main headlines. To cite a recent example, a couple of media channels that I rarely watch kept broadcasting about the situation of Mr. Amitabh Bachan’s family. I can understand that informing the public is important. Instead of just letting the people know about the situation, they kept broadcasting about what Mr. Bachan has been eating every hour and so on. Instead of broadcasting about this, the media could have broadcasted about the current dire situation caused by Assam floods or inform people that India is about to reach 1 million cases and the possible implications, and many others. I am not against Bachan’s family nor the media. I just felt that the time should have been invested on more crucial issues. Peculiarly enough, Mr. Bachan’s fans have come together in the pandemic time, breaking social distancing laws and conducting holy rituals for the safety of Mr. Bachan.
We cannot ignore the role of social media. It is used as a resource for spreading awareness and sharing the coronavirus survivors’ experience. Initially, I was confident that coronavirus could not do anything to me, and it will not damage me. After reading the personal stories of those on Twitter and Instagram, I realized that I had a wrong perspective. I was also really impressed by Instagram’s initiatives for combating the virus. To promote people to stay at home during the lockdowns, Instagram introduced a “Stay at home” sticker where people can show off by staying at home adhering to the rules of the lockdown. Making this feature is not too hard for them. The thought to add this feature to do their part in this pandemic is indeed commendable.
All of us got a chance to see the good side and bad sides of the many things that exist in our day-to-day lives. The above is just a smaller subset of what has happened in this pandemic. My perspective of the good and the bad, can differ significantly from the perspective of another person. A decision that I critiqued might have been a decision that inspired someone else. This work is a personal opinion of the Covid on my personal perspectives. Either way, I am really impressed with many of the initiatives that have been taken. If it weren’t for these initiatives, the situation right now would have been much worse.
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