Author: The Conversation

The same week social distancing measures were announced in Australia (March 16 – March 22), sales of game consoles leaped 285.6%. Prior to this, sales were declining month on month. We’ve also seen a 278.5% spike in physical game sales, spurred by the release of Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. COVID-19 is clearly having an impact on our shopping habits beyond toilet paper. https://twitter.com/DevoidLij/status/1246708143653937152 Looking at the games leaping up the UK charts in late March, the top five (which all enjoyed a 200%+ bump in sales) provide robust multiplayer experiences. Apart from Doom and Animal Crossing, we see the latest releases from…

Remote working can be a blessing. More time with family, less commuting, and meetings from the comfort of your living room. But as millions across the world switch to working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they may be putting the security and privacy of themselves, their families and their employers at risk.

During this pandemic, it is fair to say that pre-COVID-19 family routines may shift, or even completely fall apart! In our new COVID-19 reality, daycare and school are cancelled, parents are working from home and families are engaging in social distancing, leaving no peers for kids to play with.

As we practice social distancing, our embrace of social media gets only tighter. The major social media platforms have emerged as the critical information purveyors for influencing the choices people make during the expanding pandemic. There’s also reason for worry: the World Health Organization is concerned about an “infodemic,” a glut of accurate and inaccurate information about COVID-19.

Many schools have also asked parents to ensure that learning continues at home. Online learning is an obvious way to keep lessons going; however, only a few schools have well-established online learning systems. Additional challenges for parents can include connectivity problems, limited data access and power blackouts.

As families everywhere adjust to social distancing measures like closed schools and child care centers, workplaces and more, parents are grappling with questions regarding their kids’ use of technology. Rebecca Dore, an expert on children and media, offers some tips for how to make the most of screen time for kids who are cooped up at home.

Depending on your culture, you are probably used to greeting someone with a handshake, hug or nose bump. Well, not any more.

As introverts everywhere silently (of course) celebrate the need for social distance, the rest of us are struggling to navigate how to project our feelings without touch.

We know positive social support can improve our capacity to cope with stress. But right now we’re being asked to keep our distance from others to minimise the spread of the virus. Many people are facing periods of enforced isolation if they are believed to have COVID-19 or have been in contact with someone who has.

Now more than ever before, the stakes are getting higher in professional gaming. E-sports should be taken seriously as both an occupation and a form of leisure. Riot Games, the developers of desktop juggernaut League of Legends, is even taking the game into Monday Night Football territory with its own weekday broadcast of the game’s major tournament.

News and views about coronavirus has spread via social media in a way that no health emergency has done before.

Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok and Instagram have played critical roles in sharing news and information, but also in disseminating rumours and misinformation.