Digital divide, virtual vexation

Aug. 21, 2020

Imagine if we all hopped aboard our exchange cart time machine and traveled back to those analog days of summer before the World Wide Web was opened to the public. 

In fact, let’s mosey back several decades earlier to before the Internet or even the ARPANET was accessible to collegiate/university and military installations. Say we distract fellow innovators like J.C.R. Licklider, Vint Cerf, Leonard Kleinrock, Lawrence Roberts and the rest of the “online posse” in the 1960s with parties, rock-n-roll and stock car races so that by the year 2020 we likely still enjoy “free” analog TV and radio, print catalogs and media, and our wireless “smart” phones are the size of Shaquille O’Neal’s size 22 Reebok Shaq Attaq high-top basketball sneakers.

Apple remains a fruit because we love “Big Blue” IBM, Radio Shack and Texas Instruments; Amazon remains a mail-order book warehouse looking to expand and compete with the Big Box stores; Google would be a not-so-clever college project misspelling the enormous number concept (that’s “googol” for those not in the engineering, mathematics, scientific or “Jeopardy!” communities) and no one likely would give much credence to such cinematic delights as “TRON” in 1982 or “WarGames” in 1983!

Fast forward to 2020 … Viral Wars: The Pandemic Strikes Back. We can’t order and shop, educate and entertain ourselves online because we’re all achingly analog!

Sure, we’d still have “delivery” by telephone. Work-from-home? Only if we’re trade laborers, farmers or artisans.

What a relief in reality that we – clad in face masks, brandishing bottles of hand sanitizer and rare collector’s item disinfectant wipe containers – can function at work and at play within the confines of the interwebs.

As the pandemic tightens its grip around the equatorial neck of the world with both microbial claws, and the global population whipsaws between not enough sensationalized COVID-19 coverage and too much doomsday COVID-19 exposure, we’re constrained by quarantines and travel restrictions.

Curiously, many in healthcare question the decision of all the educational conferences and trade shows migrating to virtual events instead of remaining “live.”

Earlier this summer Healthcare Purchasing News included several virtual conference and trade show questions in its annual readership survey just to gauge what people were thinking and why.

More than 56 percent of respondents said they didn’t plan to participate in any virtual event. We provided 10 reasons from which to choose and allowed them to write in their own 11th option.

• 53.59 percent: Inability to feel and touch product samples on display

• 44.73 percent: Proximity to on-the-job demands, urgent business may take precedence more frequently than physical attendance away from work.

• 34.60 percent: Don’t feel commitment, urgency to visit trade show virtually as I would a live event in a different location.

• 29.96 percent: Inability to socialize with many colleagues and friends; meeting new ones.

• 29.11 percent: Lack of one-on-one access to available speakers and thought leaders.

• 28.69 percent: Connecting with company representatives digitally/virtually too impersonal versus face-to-face.

• 22.36 percent: Prefer to travel somewhere to get away from colleagues, work, sample new cuisine, new locations.

• 16.03 percent: Problems with internet reliability (e.g., bandwidth, connectivity, speed, etc.).

• 15.19 percent: Distractions from family needs if engaging/viewing from home office.

• 10.97 percent: No (freebie) swag to collect.

• 6.75 percent: Other, which tended to be variations on the above.

Some felt they would have to take an “educational” day or vacation day to attend a digital/virtual event. A newly freed live event schedule can become quickly filled with something else. There’s always something else to fill the void. These days, much of one’s availability hinges on pandemic-related events and patient load.

But the rallying cry of the year emerged from a pro in Texas: “Too busy to watch at work. Too tired to watch at home.” Anthem of the age, for sure.

About the Author

Rick Dana Barlow | Senior Editor

Rick Dana Barlow is Senior Editor for Healthcare Purchasing News, an Endeavor Business Media publication. He can be reached at [email protected].