Coronavirus has sent the international community into a frenzy. Now, regarded as a national pandemic, it has been interesting to note how this virus has affected the medical and tech industries around the world. But more so than ever, Coronavirus has put to light how the only people that are fighting are the virus are the ones that can only afford to do so.
Hermit Tech is a technology that facilitates companies to work online. The stock this form of technology has skyrocketed as a result of the impending pandemic. This has become fruitful for companies such as Netflix, Facetime, Zoom etc that has severely restricted human contact. In a recent post at the Atlantic, it was noted that: “contemporary society has been bracing, and even longing, for quarantine” and “being holed up at home has never been more pleasant.” However, it is important to note that this is not the case for most people.
A large portion of the services that allow you to stay at home function only when others have to be done or executed on the other person’s behalf. Services like grocery shopping app have grocers that go to the person’s behalf to get their items for example. Most of the problems that are being solved by high tech companies or the ones in Silicon Valley has faced great criticism for only executing products that are aimed at solving problems of the upper middle-class men and women.
As a result of the COVID-19 issue, working from home is a privilege and luxury that is only afforded almost exclusively to knowledge workers. This could highly result in having fewer stable building facilities jobs and then those employees could then be forced into a work with fewer labor protections that might not facilitate homebound work force. It is important for those that have this privilege to not transfer their burden to prepare for a pandemic onto others and be mindful of the people underwriting their convenience.
