‽istis
reclaims Only Connect (weekending
May 16th 2020)
‽istis, with E.M.Forster’s ‘Howard’s End’ words swirling around (‘Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.’) is in amazement at some of the information about apparent internet use:
‽
as of January
2019, there were almost 4.4 billion active internet users, equivalent to 57% of
the global population[i]
‽
in 2017 there was three times as much internet traffic relating to online shopping as there were relating to visiting adult websites (ibid)
‽
under lockdown
total internet hits have apparently surged by between 50% and 70%[ii]
‽
by early April
2020 ‘Zoom’ user numbers seemed to have risen to 200 million from 10 million in
December 2019; ‘Google Meet’ daily usage was 25 times higher than in January
2020; ‘Microsoft Teams’ had over 44 million daily users, who generated over 900
million meeting and calling minutes daily in a single week at the end of March[iii]
‽
in March, a dataset of over 29,000 scientific articles
related to the coronavirus family was made public to help the scientific and
medical community better understand Covid-19 and its related viruses (ibid)
‽
but ‽istis is perhaps
not surprised that organisations are issuing advice and guidance specifically
to help children, young people and adults keep safe online during the Covid-19 epidemic
e.g: in the UK, the NSPCC[iv];
Women’s Aid[v]…
‽
…you might like
to add your own ‘stats and facts’ about the quantity and quality of potentially
good, bad and ugly uses, from wherever interest and research takes you…
‽istis, like so many across the world, is physically isolated but is pretty-well ‘connected’ (perhaps unlike so many across the world who are excluded from many things including access to the internet) with friends and family; with colleagues and teams, customers and suppliers and clients; financially; leisurely, with games and films and television and plays and blogs and the seriousness and silliness of anybody’s postings…
But this week ‽istis reclaims particularly the wonders of internet radio, mostly receiving it and listening to it via a dedicated set (with AM/FM/DAB/music player/aux input too; oh yes!). Today that radio tells ‽istis that there are:
‽
20,587 stations
available across all genres and from all parts of the world (searchable by type
and place):
‽
‘Alternative’ - perhaps
much-needed at the moment?: 556
‽
Bluegrass: just
38
‽
Classical: 637
‽
Discussion: 78
‽
Folk: 400
‽
Jazz: 538
‽
New Age: 89
‽
News: 850
‽
News Talk: 718
‽
News Updates: 144
‽
Religious: 572
‽
Sports: 395
And ‽istis rejoices and wonders with ears wide open and with thanks to all those who create content; who research and produce and present; who keep us connected across such a diverse world-wide web of voices, ideas, opinions, news, drama, comedy, and the breadth and depth of music and sounds of this extraordinary world.
Harking back to E.M.Forster (but leaving ‘beasts’ and ‘monks’ aside - seemingly at either end of an intriguing spectrum!), the proliferation of internet radio stations perhaps adds to a sense that there are possibly ways for the prose and the passion of life to be connected and exalted – and (without being naïve about the sometime ranting and the abuse and the reporting of a vast range of experience good, bad and ugly) that maybe we can live in fragments no longer; that we can still hope that human love may, just from time to time, be glimpsed at its height!
Footnote: as this is being typed the vibes of station ‘Amor con Salsa’, from the ‘World Tropical’ genre, ease ‽istis along… nice!
© Pistis
[ii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/markbeech/2020/03/25/covid-19-pushes-up-internet-use-70-streaming-more-than-12-first-figures-reveal/
[iii] https://techerati.com/news-hub/key-covid-19-stats-so-far-cloud-data-centre-cyber-security-ai-big-data/
