An overview
The virus has spread everywhere governments around the world have locked down everything, transport is restricted, flights are banned, and harbors are sealed. You will need to be at home until this situation cools down, which might take longer than a few weeks. It is evident that the virus is dangerous and the only way to prevent yourself from being infected is by staying at home and maintaining the laws of social distancing, washing your hands at frequent intervals, and covering your face with N-95 masks. The authorities have made it possible for essential services to be made available for everyone, but that still does not make it safe for you to leave home. The internet has become the most excellent tool in this era when people avoid any contact, from news to entertainment, everything is dependent on the online world. People are opting to spend time at home, but this decline in the lack of human contact might lead to boredom or trigger an underlying medical condition. Hence, it becomes essential to keep yourself occupied and make most of the only unlimited resource available to us, the internet. Let us look at some modes of online entertainment which have made it possible for us to live through these tough times.
Google’s art and culture initiative
Google has tried to capitalize on the Covid-19 crisis and has made it possible for history students and museum enthusiasts to take a look at their favorite piece of art. Google has collaborated with museums and art houses around the world to create an online display of all artworks with a 360-degree view for all the valuable pieces. You can log in to Google’s Arts and Culture page and choose from the hundreds of links available, each leading to a specific museum. Google has featured museums from around the world to make sure it can cater to a broader audience. It offers a chance to visit more than 2000 museums and archives, and you can search for these museums based on location, artist’s name, or name of the artwork or name of the institution.
Online classes and courses
All educational institutions are closed, and students have a hard time figuring out what to do. Multiple websites and prestigious colleges like Havard, Oxford and Cambridge have come up with free online courses for students around the world, and you will not have to pay for the eduction, you might have to pay a minimal fee to them in case you want a course completion certificate from the university.
These courses have a varied range, taking into consideration all streams and fields from arts, science, commerce, fine arts, practical and interdisciplinary courses. The most popular websites offering such courses are ‘edX’ and ‘Coursera’, they have partnered with most of the said universities to execute these programs. Most colleges that are unable to conduct classes have resorted to giving lectures over Skype, Zoom, and Google Classroom. The only problem with that is not everyone has a smartphone and the resources to pay for internet accessibility, especially in weak economies of the third world. Yet institutions are trying to finish the syllabus, and there will be an even more significant problem with conducting exams.
Online entertainment – social media
The most excellent pastime of the digital natives is surfing through the screen of their smartphones, looking at the stories on social media sites, and connecting with their loved ones. These social media sites have made it possible for us to know what is happening around the world. The news is also one of the greatest boons of the internet. It is easy to read the report on the phone rather than looking at the television to find journalists shouting at their panels.
Online gambling
Gambling is one of the most popular activities since time immemorial, and it amounted to more than 50 billion US dollars in 2019. It ultimately depends on the state, as they make laws regarding gambling; for example, New Jersey has a significant number of online casinos. In contrast, the Texas online gambling market is damaged due to its strict laws against gambling both on land and online. You download apps or directly use websites to play your favorite game with a chance to earn a few bucks.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic requires us to be responsible citizens and follow the guidelines put forward by authorities and the World Health Organisation (WHO), most of it is about staying at home and stopping the disease from spreading in the community. The internet makes it easy to order things at our doorstep, but that does not mean that we abuse this privilege, it is unethical to put the lives of many delivery professionals on the line unless it is an essential product.
