Digital technology is a crucial weapon to help us defeat the coronavirus

Social media is a misnomer for the digital space we live and operate in today. We are all a product of the digital revolution.

The digital revolution allows us to access unlimited information, on an unlimited number of topics or persons, at any time of day. It’s called the Internet, although I do not know who built it, who manages it, where it is or how it gets updated.

If a well-known person dies today, it is reported on the Internet. If a natural disaster happens today, then it is reported today. If people wonder about something historically, they can find it immediately on the Internet. I can even look up Bible references instantaneously in any version of the Bible I desire!

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are famous for leading the digital revolution. I wanted to know their life spans. In an instant I learned that Jobs only lived 56 years, and Gates is still alive promoting what he believes in with his billions of dollars.

I also learned that they were both born in 1955, which was 10 years after I was born. They started a digital revolution while I was fighting my way to success. I’m not mad. It’s just a fact.

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As a computer science major at Purdue University in the 1970s, I had to endure the agony of punched cards to run a computer program. They had to endure the same thing, until they decided that this was ridiculous. I had no choice. I had to complete my MS degree, and I did.

Decades later they were billionaires for creating the digital revolution, while I and millions of other people are beneficiaries of their thinking and work. They changed the way business and society functions today.

And one of the most important of those benefits will be our victory over the crisis we now face. The coronavirus crisis will be defeated because of the digital revolution. Information will be exchanged faster, tests will be done faster. Results will be implemented faster.

The coronavirus is deadliest pandemic in over 100 years.

But 100 years ago we did not have the digital space we have today, and the vast amount of human ingenuity we have to defeat the virus.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the coronavirus, and there is still a lot of conflicting information. Unfortunately, too many Democrats and liberals are using this crisis to try to score political points, or get to federal dollars for things that have nothing to do with this crisis.

Most people who take this pandemic seriously and use common sense will be OK, and we will eventually answer the unanswered questions. Since information moves at the speed of life, some people – and especially reporters seeking a big headline – are impatient. Getting definitive research results may be faster because of the speed of digital technology, but not as fast as life itself.

We will be able to answer those unanswered questions because the digital space exists today. I know some people will abuse this technology, but most people will not.

We are blessed to have this digital technology in times like these. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates started a transformation that gave us a weapon to deploy against an unexpected enemy.

We must use this weapon responsibly, or pay the consequences. We live in a digitally connected world. Let’s be sure we use that fact to become a victorious world.