Surfing the Web: Utilizing New Forms of Communication in the Face of a Worldwide Crisis
By Ash Prodromou
Andy Prodromou is a primary care physician with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. His day-to-day routine for his profession usually includes checking in with his regular patients, communicating about prescriptions, socializing with his coworkers, and taking on new clients to help diagnose their problems. This morning, he has an appointment with a regular to check up on their diabetes and help them with a new prescription. He’s keeping busy, checking in with patients...all from the comfort of his own home. In light of the shelter-at-home order, made effective at exactly midnight on March 18th, 2020, many families are finding themselves stuck, well, at home. Unable to meet up with family and friends, many banned from going into work and forced to stay indoors at
all hours of the day, it’s easy to make the argument that the coronavirus has isolated us as a species. However, in a surprise twist of fate, technology and virtual communication have connected people across the globe and allowed us to contact loved ones, keep up general health, and still enjoy the things that we love. Take that, Aunt Marie on Facebook, who said that all teenagers are only using their phones to be antisocial! The first inkling that this little virus was something more than a regional issue came when cases of coronavirus exploded across China and Italy, causing both countries to shut down completely as hospitals scrambled to contain the vast number of patients in
critical condition. From there, it was almost a given that COVID-19 would spread to the US. “The first time I heard about coronavirus was probably in mid-January. I saw news reports about it coming from China,” says Andy. “And we had seen other viral infections in the past coming from certain geographical areas. That was the SARS virus several years ago. There was MRS several years ago. And so I thought it would just remain a regional infection.” Unfortunately for Andy and his coworkers, the virus spread across the US in a matter of days, forcing schools across the country to close, and any “non-essential” business to shut down shortly afterwards. “I am someone who is on the go all the time,” Pam Prodromou remarks. She’s a stay-athome mom who handles a lot of the daily tasks and spends much of her time driving all over Mountain View and Los Altos. “...And then all of a sudden, it all came to an abrupt halt when the decision was made prior to the shelter-inplace to ask people to social distance significantly. Large gatherings were banned...And so once that stopped, that was an immediate change to my daily schedule…” Pam has also been affected by the fact that family gatherings, particularly ones with older or aging family members, have been impossible. Fortunately for her and other family members struggling to connect, a variety of alternative solutions have appeared out of the woodworks. “I only heard of Zoom maybe 6 months ago, and now it’s bePam Prodromou chats with her come a daily conversation about, ‘oh, when are friends via Zoom for their weekly we gonna connect on Zoom’, ‘oh, let’s schedule book club meeting. that Zoom call!’,” she says.“Learning how to use cally someone who loves to be on a camera, that and be comfortable, because I’m not typiso that is an adjustment, but it is a great way to keep up with people!” Zoom, a platform primarily used for business calls and virtual conferences, has become a necessity based on its easy-to-use software and free status. People are using it for work, school, birthday parties, bat mitzvahs, and more. Nursing homes are even using them to connect their elderly patients, a group that is probably the most at risk for contracting coronavirus in the US. Nandi Butcher, a spokesperson for Aegis Living, states,“Finding new ways to connect families regularly is more important than
“Finding new ways to connect families regularly is more important than ever.” - Pam Prodromou ever. We are helping our residents connect with loved ones via FaceTime, Skype, and phone calls and have gotten great responses so far.” Unfortunately for many Zoom users, “Zoom-bombing” has become an increasingly popular trend in recent months as bored teenagers have discovered a new and disruptive way to pass the time. “A Twitter account called @zoom_codes encourages followers to send in codes for upcoming classes to be retweeted for other potential Zoombombers to join in — and some aspiring crashers are blatantly advertising their plans to find viral fame,” reports Margot Harris for Insider. The randomization of Zoom’s Meeting ID feature means that it’s a cakewalk for trolls to enter calls and post inappropriate content or spam other users. And Zoom is doing little to provide solutions. “The company had been slow to address security flaws such as vulnerabilities ‘that could enable malicious third parties to, among other things, gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams,’” write Danny Hakim and Natasha Singer in their article “New York Attorney General Looks Into Zoom’s Privacy Practices.” In the article, the two summarize the report sent to Zoom by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. In response, a representative for Zoom gave these guidelines: “For those hosting large, public group meetings, we strongly encourage hosts to change their settings so that only they can share their screen. For those hosting private meetings, password protections are on by default and we recommend that users keep those protections on to prevent uninvited users from joining.” Despite these potential security concerns, Zoom as a whole has been an effective way for groups of people to bridge the gap of the shelter-in-place order and other restrictions. Pam summarizes the many ways she’s used the program already: “We’ve used it to keep up with family already, we’ve used it to keep up with friends, and I know that it’s hugely important for people to reach out and support each other, and also make sure that everybody’s needs are met. If anybody needs anything, we want to be able to help them out - do some shopping for them, or provide anything that they need.” (P. Prodromou) In the end, it seems that the world has Andy Prodromou schedules video calls with patients for check-ups, practicing telemedicine. propped up some two-by-fours under their
collapsed roof; other words, alternatives for communication and essential needs may feel very out of place, but they’re keeping us sane and preventing daily life from slowly breaking down over time. Andy is able to continue his work as a primary care physician only occasionally going into the office to hold down the fort there. One day he came home from a day where he’d had to go to the office and declared that he had seen less than 10 patients that day. He’s been spending much more time at home, watching his older kid play video games, cleaning up at poker and learning Italian on Duolingo in his spare time. Similarly, Pam has kept up with her book club and other friend group meetings, creating a set-up in the downstairs office so that she can use virtual background on calls. She’s found new ways to engage with her family, playing funny songs in order to call everyone down to lunch and encouraging spring cleaning on the weekends. “I think I am trying as much as possible to focus on what I can do, rather than what I can’t do, personally…” she says. “And I’ve probably talked to some family and friends more consistently in the last week than I have Andy Prodromou on a call with a patient.
in the last six months, just because everyone’s really reaching out and trying to support each other, and check in with each other. And even walking in the neighborhood, people keep their distance but they’re warm and say hello. To see people
really looking out for each other in different ways, and I’m still trying to figure out more that I can do to be a positive force throughout this, but personally just trying to focus on the positives and not get too bogged down in the negatives.” Pam Prodromou
Andy Prodromou
Special Thanks
About the Author
Ash Prodromou is a junior at Los Altos High School and a Film student at Freestyle Academy. They have really enjoyed learning how to use InDesign, Photoshop, Aftereffects, and other Adobe programs during their time at Freestyle. They’re also way too pretentious about music. In their free time, Ash enjoys listening to bands you probably haven’t heard of (mostly just the Beatles) and watching Game Grumps. They’re so used to writing bios for their theater productions that they almost typed in some filler asking you to enjoy the show. Instead, they’re just gonna say that they hope you enjoy the incredible layout that a Film student was able to create.