Covid-19 Pandemic Communication
iPhone and iPad: These two devices opened a world of possibilities I did not realize I had at my fingertips. I was lucky to receive both devices as gifts. The world of apps such as FlipGrip, Padlets, TunaTuner, Vimeo, YouTube, Google Meets, Google Docs, Google Classroom, Zoom empowered me to virtually participate in life without leaving my home.
I am still more comfortable in my Samsung home computer, but the iPhone and the iPad are beginning to be my best online enablers. When I return to substitute work, I will have to decide what type of laptop to get, an Apple or a Microsoft, my first enabler. Meanwhile, I am expanding my sophistication of the iPhone using more Apps. How do I learn how to use any App or device? I turn to YouTube training videos. There are low to high-quality pieces of training for every need.
FaceTime: Communication with grandchildren, adult family members, and very few friends. We needed the personal connection provided by seeing each other's faces.
Text: Family and very close friends. Some people hate to use FaceTime. They are too worry not to have their public face on.
Zoom: Family and high school classmates. The pandemic brought a communication desire and Zoom made it easy. I do not know the business aspect of Zoom, but as an educational connector, its user-friendly simplicity is golden.
Facebook: Former colleagues and students, favorite singers, musicians, schools where I worked. This platform also connected me to Bloomberg's Contract Tracing Course on Coursera and PBS and other toddlers connections to help grandchildren virtually during the Pandemic. Facebook also reconnected me to the service-learning field and propel my first connection to Instagram through the Documentar_ Project for teens and the Documentar_ Project for Adults. I have avoided connections to the negative side of Facebook as I delete anything that is offensive.
Coursera: Connected me to the following online introductory courses Music for Wellness, Introduccion a la Guitarra, and Learn How to Teach Online.
Twitter: Coursera Course groups recommended joining. I dislike this platform very much. I use it only if requested. Why do I dislike it? I am a "words person." Twitter is too concise for my taste. During the Trump administration and the Covid-19 Pandemic, Tweets disseminated negativity and polarization.
What's Up: Family and friends in other countries. It is a free connector of people from all over the world. A niece uploaded What's Up to my phone on the occasion of her wedding when family communication intensified. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, What's Up reconnected me with my classmates from Colegio de Jesus in Lima-Peru. We use to keep in touch and to share original or meaningful literature. An example is a poem on the occasion of Mother's Day below sent by the friend who organized the What's Up group and keeps us communicating via Zoom.
¿Ves esa vieja escuálida y horrible?
Pues óye; aunque parézcate imposible,
fue la más bella entre las bellas;
el clavel envidió sus labios rojos,
y ante la luz de sus divinos ojos
vacilaron el sol y las estrellas.
Y hoy... ¿quién puede quererla? ¿Quién un beso
podrá darle con tímido embelezo?
¡Yo! -me dijo un extraño que me oía-
Yo que por ella la existencia lucho,
que soy feliz cuando su voz escucho...
¡Esa vieja es la hermosa madre mía!
Pues óye; aunque parézcate imposible,
fue la más bella entre las bellas;
el clavel envidió sus labios rojos,
y ante la luz de sus divinos ojos
vacilaron el sol y las estrellas.
Y hoy... ¿quién puede quererla? ¿Quién un beso
podrá darle con tímido embelezo?
¡Yo! -me dijo un extraño que me oía-
Yo que por ella la existencia lucho,
que soy feliz cuando su voz escucho...
¡Esa vieja es la hermosa madre mía!
Media: MSNBC, CNN, local news channels (OKC, Oklahoma and Brookline, Mass), FOX, Newsy, One America News. I like to see both political viewpoints. During the Pandemic I became a fan of Rachael Maddow for her passion, ability, and knowledge. I also like Ari Melber and Chris Cuomo because their style of delivering the news is easy to watch and trust. I see two capable people in flow with what they are doing
Radio: PBS, MSNBC. I listened to NPR radio every morning on my drive to work since the year 2000. MSMBC since the Pandemic has gone from my TV to my car radio station of choice.
Podcasts: Several of special interest, but none that I follow with regularity
Books: Vivir Para Contarla by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric I am still reading them. Too busy with online connecting opportunities during the day. Read a few pages a week.
YouTube: How to videos on mask making, uploading songs, creating sounds, lyrics
Google: A research tool at my fingertips. Answers to every question that came my way.
Newspapers: The Boston Globe, snippets of daily news.
I have a friend who is writing a compilation of letters from the Pandemic Influenza of 1918. What connections were they able to make and what were the effects of those connections? What connections are other baby boomers making? How are the younger and older generations' connections to 2020 similar and different? What are the commonalities in our connections and what do we conclude from those commonalities?
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