Social distancing and digitalization go hand in hand

Digitalization has benefited a lot of people, but has also been a challenge for others. Especially companies whose business is suddenly redundant with the emergence of a digital market.

Society is always in a constant process of change, but digitalization has greatly accelerated this change. And 2020 normalized a lot of digital behaviour, which facilitated social distancing.

Digital payment solutions

Even before the pandemic, it was common for consumers to avoid handling coins and banknotes, the pandemic made the cashless society even more entrenched. Many coins and notes are mostly lying around gathering dust, in favor of card and digital payments. Payments giant PayPal had its best year ever in 2020. This is remarkable because the company has reached maturity and is no longer in its early growth phase. banking options such as Klarna and Revolut are increasingly attractive to consumers who want to distance themselves from bank branches, and germ-free cash.

The job market is changing in line with digitalization as physical bank branches are slowly declining, while different types of IT jobs are increasing.

Digital entertainment

We have had to avoid arena events and other crowded activities, and got used to a more isolated form of entertainment. For some, this was already preferable while others miss the social aspect, and went through a period of adjustment. Many people have lost their jobs in this sector, at least temporarily. However, as people will most likely continue to want to experience different types of events with their friends, this industry will continue to be in demand in the long term.

There are computer games that can be played with and against other players online. The choice is enormous, and there are games from all over the world. At the same time, it is a passive social experience if you play against other players, and have verbal communication. A lot of people’s friendships have come from playing online games, which are also maintained outside of the game world.

Playing poker online is hardly a new phenomenon and probably peaked a handful of years ago. But is still very popular. You compete against other people around a digital poker table, which is located just about everywhere on Earth. There are many, many poker sites. But it’s easy to find out which are the best poker sites, with well-known names like 888Poker and Pokerstars sounding familiar. There are those who play poker for a living, sitting around all day waiting for the right hands to appear and for probability to pay the bills.

Digital healthcare

We are slowly becoming aware of digital tools and their potential to maintain good health and well-being.

Apps have been used to track the spread of the coronavirus in many parts of the world. The method is used by governments and recommended by many organizations as an important tool to successfully collect data to better control the spread of the disease. Perhaps this is the beginning of a series of health reports that constantly generate data on our health and warn us well in advance of potential concerns. Probably has a lot of work to do before the technology is perfect, and probably needs to be a few years old to be considered reliable. One potential scenario is that an app automatically alerts the health service when an individual suffers a life-threatening condition, with an ambulance immediately responding.

Of course, digital apps that monitor our health involve a lot of collected data, which conflicts with the criticism of the growing influence of the surveillance society.

Digital healthcare is a much-needed inspiration for a healthy future. Especially since digitalization easily results in inactivity and sedentariness, which in turn can lead to health problems.