Kijktip: Evelyn Austin (BoF) over privacy tijdens corona
Evelyn Austin in gesprek met Klöpping over het inzetten van technologie voor het oplossen van vraagstukken. Vooral in de laatste minuten spreekt ze hele wijze woorden richting onze overheid.
The changing needs during corona era (94)
The past weeks I made some screenshots from bol.com, NL’s biggest online store. They have a section on their front page called ‘hardlopers’, products that are popular. This section captures the state of mind of the Dutch rather accurately.
This screenshot I took on February 28th, a day after the first Corona infection was confirmed in The Netherlands.
On March 15th, a few days into an appeal to work from home and the same day closure of schools, daycare, restaurants etc. was announced I took this screenshot.
Last Tuesday, March 31st, more than two weeks into the Dutch intelligent lock-down and the day prolonging of the lock-down was announced, these items were popular.
Being (a)social (91)
We had a typical morning in this new era. The Man is working, the Daughter and I played for a bit after breakfast, got dressed and went outside to get some fresh air and a bit of physical exercise. Outside we follow a standard route: through the parc, around the school (not Daughters’ future school, but her best friends’), sometimes on to the farm, and then homewards following the bike path that passes the big slide and crosses our street at the other end. Along the way we see where it is quiet enough to play. This morning the parc was a bit too busy, so we went on to the farm. The farm itself is closed to the public (obviously) but you can walk past the grazing of the sheep and goats. Four lambs were born, so it’s a feast to watch those tiny creatures for a bit. Then we went on to a tiny playground. Only two other girls (sisters) were playing there, so there was enough space for Daughter and me to play for a bit. We ended up digging holes to burry a giant ant and its baby. As this playground was close to the home of a friend of mine, I called her and invited her outside for a chat. We chatted for half an hour,sitting at good distance from eachother, and then made our way home, with a last stop at the big slide.
The way we look for spots to play on our route is mainly focused on finding spots where no-one else is. It feels wrong on so many levels. It felt good to chat with my friend, but doing so at a distance felt awkward. The most awkward thing about it is Daughter’s already totally adjusting to the new situation. She’s the first one to say we can’t play somewhere because there are other kids. When all this is over we will have to reteach all young kids how to play with others.
Connecting (85)
Last Saturday I scheduled online reading time with two of my new friends and their kids. We met several years ago during singing classes for toddlers. Our kids are about the same age and over time our friendship grew. Since Daughter has little to no interaction with kids her age, I suggested to read stories to our kids. Our first meeting was last Saturday using Facetime. It was lovely to hang out with each other for a while and see our kids enjoy listening to new stories. We repeated this today. Earlier this week I decided to get a subscription to Zoom so I could host the meeting. Watching each other on a computer screen beats small iPhone screens.
Now that I have a Zoom subscription I will host a family coffee meet up next Saturday. I’m wondering what else I could do. Long distance podcasting is an option, but am not sure what the topic should be. How do people work in isolation? Fictional stories? I’m curious what kind of stories you would love to hear.
Rituals missed
In a few months time Daughter celebrates her fourth birthday. In the world we lived in a month ago, that meant she would have a few days in school before transitioning from daycare to school permanently. Our pseudo lock-down extension until June 1st means that as far as I can see, schools will not reopen before summer holidays. That means that Daughter will not return to daycare to experience the farewell ritual and she will not start school when she turns four. I mourn for these missed rituals.
Watching TV feels strangely odd (84)
I’ve noticed how quickly one can adapt to a new situation. As we’re repeatedly being told to keep 1,5 meters distance from others, I now look at TV series and movies with new eyes. Normal human behaviour already seems completely odd. People shaking hands, people hugging, people in restaurants, people gathering in droves. I know we will return to that normality in the future, but for now, I guess I prefer to read books. It’s less confronting what we’ll be missing for a while and it is possible to project the new normality on the written word.