December 2019, when everyone had the expectation of the upcoming new year, no one would realize that the second 20 years of the 21st century would begin like this. In February 2020, an unprecedented pandemic of COVID-19 started, and soon, in order to save the whole world, more and more people and officials have agreed with the idea of staying at home. However, this left us with a huge problem that needs to be taken care of besides the pandemic itself, which is socializing. Luckily, as always, we have the internet.
In March 2020, Nintendo released the newest version of Animal Crossing. Under this unprecedented condition, it is not that surprising to see that the release of a game could cause such a huge impact. While people were worrying about how to maintain relationships, this game is like a very appropriate solution. In the game, players could simply play the role of a common village resident and make friends with NPCs and other players online. Visiting different friends’ houses and playing together in the game definitely is a good alternative to replace the face to face meeting during this special period. Soon after the game released, Nintendo even released a specially designed version of Switch that applied the theme of Animal Crossing to its appearance.
From Animal Crossing, we could see how the internet is impacting the connections and relationships between people, especially at this time when we emphasize the significance of social distancing. The internet provides us with plenty of choices to replace what we do face to face before. Working, study, entertaining, and some other things about socializing. In August, which is the beginning of a regular semester for some schools, Zoom actually got crashed. What does that tell us? Although it is not that we actively accept this situation, with the internet, it is definitely applicable to stay at home all the time!
The development of the internet has truly fulfilled many of our needs during this special period. I’m an international student, and due to what this pandemic caused, I have to stay in my home country at this time. However, with the internet, I could easily take all my courses from my school online. Although there is a time difference, at least I have the chance to continue my study without taking a gap. The same for a lot of people, the internet could fulfill their needs in many ways, and to serve humanity as well.