Intensification of digital technologies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: socio-economic aspect

Issues of digital technology intensification during COVID-19 are becoming increasingly popular. The COVID-19 pandemic has given new impetus to efforts to provide ample connectivity and access to key digital services – from education to finance and health – to communities around the world.

The purpose of the article is to identify problematic issues and identify key prerequisites for digital development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic as a socio-economic aspect.

The digitalization of all spheres of society today provides with the help of information and communication technologies a unique opportunity to combine intellectual potential, scientific developments, research results in the fight against the pandemic and solving major problems of world development. However, the problem of ensuring effective digital development in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic remains unresolved.

One of the highlights of the current pandemic is the accelerated introduction of digital technologies in various industries. The development of this area speaks not only of the urgent need, but also of the created material base for the widespread use of digital technologies. The main trends associated with the accelerating transition to the digital economy: remote operation and use of communication technologies, the negative impact on some digital platforms, changing consumer habits. Most digital solutions are offered and supported by a small number of the largest platforms created in the United States or China.

One of the most notable consequences of the COVID-19 crisis has been the widespread use of technological solutions to gather information on the spread of the virus and the physiological state of citizens. This has become possible due to cheaper and, consequently, widespread use of smartphones by citizens, which collect data on the lifestyle of their owners. During the crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19, there was a leap in the use of technologies to track social contacts.

Artificial intelligence technologies are also widely used in the fight against coronavirus. In China, medical institutions use tomogram systems based on artificial intelligence, which allows you to quickly distinguish ordinary pneumonia from pneumonia caused by 2019-nCoV. Public transport in Chinese cities is equipped with intelligent thermometers and masked face recognition systems. Police officers in Shanghai and other Chinese cities were issued AR helmets (helmets using augmented reality technology), developed by Kuang-Chi Technology.

Education is still not associated with a significant profit, at least compared to health care, where many new drugs and treatments are invented and produced. There are fears that investment in education may be insufficient to develop funds and resources to improve it.

A phenomenally new phenomenon in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the real use of digital opportunities to manage the masses of the population in megacities, to monitor and correct the behavior of specific individuals. Within society, digitalization can be a threat to the transformation of man from the subject of social relations to the object of rigid electronic digital management. A developed civil society capable of preventing this, which in the conditions of digitalization receives unprecedented opportunities to influence the government, business, and turn public opinion into a powerful tool for defending the interests of society.

During the pandemic, the relocation of employees to remote work using ICTs gained unprecedented proportions and stimulated change in consumer behavior, and the duration of the pandemic launched a long-term process of introducing new ICT goods and services and the availability of key digital services from education to finance and health – for communities around the world.