Will COVID-19 make our society more computer/social media savvy?

I like this thread.  Please actually do this daily.

Yes it will.  As mentioned in the winners/losers thread, more businesses are going to embrace remote work after this. The businesses that had cold feet embracing remote work have their hands forced and they will realize that work still gets done.  

Edit: I am referring to businesses that are not heavy on manual labor. 

Yeah, great question. 

I do think it will speed up what was already happening. More and more companies were moving into the computer/ online space. What we may learn is more and more items can be done online now. 

I know in the construction industry, one big change that is welcome is electronic submission of bids and proposals. Before, for a big civil construction job, you had to print several thousand pages of proposals to hand deliver to owners. Now, they are allowing us to submit bids electronically. 

Same with plans and specs. You can now electronically sign and seal plans with new software and deliever them on ipads to job sites. 

Indeed, it will. Our company is pretty tech forward, so certain people have always been able to work from home. With Covid-19 forcing our hand, our company quickly shifted to be able to be almost 100% work from home in the matter of about a week. Due to the nature of our company some people have to be in the physical locations (local news stations) but most of the behind the scenes work can be done from home.

It will a bit. A mess of people and businesses will be a notch more savvy and several will be two or three notches more.

posted by ptown_trojans_1

Yeah, great question. 

I do think it will speed up what was already happening. More and more companies were moving into the computer/ online space. What we may learn is more and more items can be done online now. 

I know in the construction industry, one big change that is welcome is electronic submission of bids and proposals. Before, for a big civil construction job, you had to print several thousand pages of proposals to hand deliver to owners. Now, they are allowing us to submit bids electronically. 

Same with plans and specs. You can now electronically sign and seal plans with new software and deliever them on ipads to job sites. 

I know you're somewhat familiar with the federal acquisition world.  This has been a slow trend that started with proposals and finally most agencies are transitioning (if they haven't already) to electronic/digital contract files. 

I think it will affect education, but in a good way.  I think that it will transform how public and private F2F districts handle calamity days in the future.  All educators are having to learn how to deliver their content remotely.  By no means will it eliminate F2F instruction.  Online education is not for everyone.  Some people prefer it, others loathe it.  Vice versa as well.

posted by ernest_t_bass

I think it will affect education, but in a good way.  I think that it will transform how public and private F2F districts handle calamity days in the future.  All educators are having to learn how to deliver their content remotely.  By no means will it eliminate F2F instruction.  Online education is not for everyone.  Some people prefer it, others loathe it.  Vice versa as well.

I think it will hurt universities.  We will see kids realizing they don't need to spend all that extra $$$ to be in residence schools when they can get the same education from home.  The debt is not worth it for most kids.

I agree with all of the above it will definitely help. My work just now figured out that with gmail you can do google hangouts with video chats and call in numbers. It has literally changed the CEO's mind on how people can work in the future if need be (we have a very heavy public facing job and all employees are expected to be in the office usually). 

I agree with what like_that said about universities. I pretty much expressed the exact same comment to my wife the other day.