In COVID-19 vs. Social Isolation: the Impact Technology can have on Communities, Social Connections and Citizens, Marston and his colleagues argue the benefits of technology in times of crisis and how technology can keep communities together during times of distress.

The article discusses how geography and age impact the use of technology in crises such as a pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people turned to technology to fill the void they were missing in quarantine. Marston discusses how older people in more rural locations used Facebook groups during the pandemic to try to stay connected and busy during the lonely time. In these Facebook groups, users communicated with each other through discussing news and relevant topics to replace everyday conversations or in-person interactions. For older generations they are hesitant to use technology, but the pandemic pushed them to get out of their comfort zone as they really had no other option with the pandemic.

This article successfully described how our world operated for a year or so, and it’s crazy to read about older generations catching up to us in terms of technology use. However, it’d be interesting to this article updated to the times now since it was published in March 2020. Throughout the article, I related to the examples Marston introduced and I think a lot of people could too. The pandemic brought a whole set of new challenges, but I feel like our society did a great job in adapting to the new social norms as we couldn’t socialize like we’re used to.