There can be no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the world for over a year now has largely forced us to change the way we socialize with each other, for the time being. With in person social interaction being largely limited until the pandemic is under control, socialization has been forced to turn to the digital world. With events, business, and schools turning to Zoom and other online services in order to fill in for in person interaction until we can once again gather in person. There’s an argument, especially among older generations, that the internet has ruined proper social interaction and social capital, but what happens when that becomes the only choice for us to see each other?
First, I should talk about what “social capital” means. According to Oxford Definitions, social capital is “the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively”. So social capital is essentially the way people interact that keeps society as we know it functioning. Something that the internet has been helping us do long before the pandemic. We’re able to see and interact with people hundreds of thousands of miles away. Which makes it hard for me to agree with the idea that the internet has been driving people apart, rather than bringing them together.
I, like most other people, have had to take all my socializing and even schooling online in the earlier days of the pandemic. Zoom and Google Hangouts became how I was able to see my friends and attend my lectures. It was not anyone’s idle situation, but the internet was brining us all together in a time when, without the internet, seeing friends, going to schools, and many jobs would not be possible. Suddenly, many of the activates that were considered “unsocial”, such as social media, video games, and online discussions were how everyone was socializing. According to a research essay provided by PubMed Central, an archive website for science and biomedical journals. In a survey of 1,374 US adults and asking them about their online use, such as, text messaging, video calls, and online games. “Taking all modes together, 46% of respondents had only increased their digital communication, without decreasing any of the methods”. More and more people are joining the online world for years and this pandemic has further drastically increased that number.
The pandemic has shown that social capital can and has been made possible on the internet. With many schools, jobs, and other groups showing they can exist, at least to a degree online. I believe the argument that the internet has weakened and ruined social capital holds no water. And while I don’t necessarily believe there will be a “new normal” after the pandemic. I do believe that once the pandemic is over. There will be a greater combination of online and in person interactions, and interactions taken online will have severely reduced stigma attached to them. The aspects of online social interaction and social capital that worked during the pandemic will be here to stay, and the aspects that didn’t, will be left behind.
Journalism 2.0 