Preventing the digital scars of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

In this commentary, we consider the ambivalent role of ubiquitous computing during the COVID pandemic and we point to the risk that some negative, IT-related practices associated with the pandemic will endure after it. We call these lasting effects the digital scars of COVID-19. The same IT that has positive impacts for some people might have negative impacts for others – often vulnerable populations, minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Some issues stem from the longstanding digital divide that characterises modern societies. Yet, the pandemic is exacerbating these inequalities. We are worried that some debatable uses of technology will persist after the pandemic is over. We therefore point to the prominent role of the IS community in enabling positive aspects of IT use during and after the pandemic, while mitigating negative aspects, especially in the long run. Our sociotechnical background enables us to see these dynamics in a processual and holistic way. To shed light on these issues, we analyse three key technologies widely used to deal with COVID (social software, AI/ML and robotics) and identify critical topics and associated research questions where IS scholarship should focus its attention to generate novel theorising and impactful practical insights.

SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS:

• Pär Ågerfalk, Kieran Conboy and Michael Myers

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• digital scars
• ethical implications
• discriminations
• IS theorising
• sociotechnical systems

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We are aware that digital contact tracing does not hold traditional characteristics of social software as commonly defined. However, we included this technology in the social software category because it is actually based on user-generated content (users whereabouts and proximity to others) although the content is “pulled” from users rather than “pushed” by users, and is shared centrally first, and then (if applies) to the data generators (users). Yet the users generate digital contents.

2. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse

3. https://www.nokidhungry.org/who-we-are/hunger-facts

4. https://www.mychart.com

5. https://gdpr.eu

6. https://cd2h.org

7. https://ncats.nih.gov/n3c

8. https://freedomhouse.org

9. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cros/content/research-projects-under-framework-programmes-0_en

10. https://www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/about.jsp