“I would’ve stayed at home, because I was doing better alone. But when you said Hello I knew that was the end of it all.” -Dua Lipa, Break My Heart.
When I accidentally listened to a song randomly, I found a snippet of Dua Lipa’s song Break My Heart, the song has words that almost describe the current situation. As we know, the end of December 2019 was the beginning of the spread of the corona that started in China. Since then, it has spread more and more massively. Not only that, as a result of the spread of the corona outbreak, it caused a lot of losses, including the number of people who died and had an impact on the economy.
WHO (World Health Organization) states that this virus is a worldwide epidemic, not only in one country. The virus known as Covid-19. Since WHO announced that this is a pandemic, governments around the world have also announced various new policies related to handling Covid-19 that affect various sectors in their countries.
In response to this condition, Indonesia also took a serious stance in dealing with Covid-19 when the first Covid-19 case was discovered in Indonesia in March 2020. So, officially the majority of Indonesians feel the restriction on their space and all life activities have changed completely. For example, the implementation of religious activities, social activities, and offices are carried out from home. Since then, together, we have adapted to a new situation called the new normal era. A concept that still sounds unfamiliar but this pandemic requires us to adapt quickly. According to psychologist Yuli Budirahayu from the online media page Tribunnews that the new normal has an understanding of behavior change to continue carrying out normal activities but by implementing health protocols to prevent the transmission of Covid-19.
In this new normal era, we often hear about social distancing as a way to break the Covid-19 chain, but there has been a change in the phrase regarding it. According to Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove as a representative of WHO, social distancing was changed to physical distancing. The goal is so that everyone can stay connected socially but still maintain a distance to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 from one person to another. This is done by WHO because WHO realizes that humans are social creatures who need interaction with each other to meet social needs as their nature. This situation has become difficult due to Covid-19 and has made us carry out various activities from home. Activities that we usually do outside the home, when Covid-19 comes we have to adapt to doing various activities from home including work and all communication is done online. One day, two days, one week, two weeks maybe we can survive happily but we have to stay at home for months it will give birth to challenges that are not easy. Being stuck in the house is making a real difference to the healthcare system and those with compromised immune system. Even though it’s boring, stressful, and tiresome.
Even though we spend time at home, working from home, we can’t deny that we don’t need communication with other people. Yes, we really need communication even though it’s online and we need media to do it. Not only our media also need expertise in using it.
Understanding Virtual Communication Media
Viewed from the point of view of communication science, interaction between humans is a process of delivering information from the perception of communicators and communicants that can be conveyed through language in the form of verbal communication and body language. When Covid-19 spreads, the interaction and communication patterns of the community also change because they must comply with the Health protocols that have been regulated by WHO.
Verbal communication which is usually done face-to-face does not seem to be able to be done often. As an alternative is to use virtual communication media that are already qualified to accommodate the communication needs of communication actors. In simple terms, virtual communication media can be understood as a tool used for the delivery of communication with the help of the internet network.
Some virtual communication media that can help communication in the New Normal period include:
This virtual communication media seems to be very familiar among the Indonesian people, it can be used to send voice and text messages, send documents and pictures, video calls, it can also facilitate group conversations. The advantages of this virtual communication media are religious features, this service is not paid or free.
Zoom
The virtual communication medium that is often the choice in coordinating is Zoom. Through the Zoom application, it is possible for us to communicate with a number of people in real time and interactively. With paid services, Zoom can accommodate video conferences of up to 1,000 participants. The advantage of this virtual communication media is that it can accommodate presentations because there is a share screen feature that allows communicators to carry out useful communication processes to share presentation materials
Skype
Skype can accommodate conference calls, voice calls, group chats, and is compatible with Microsoft Outlook. Another plus is that Skype has a simple interface that makes it easy to use and keeps users safe by setting a code on every instant message and call made by one end of the line.
And there are many virtual communication media such as Google Meet, Telegram, Kakao Talk, Line, Slack, and so on.
Three Highly Advantages of Having Virtual Communication Skills For A Stay At Home Mom.
The call to stay at home does not only have an impact on those who are used to activities outside the home but is also felt by stay at home moms. The stay at home moms who in their daily life do a lot of activities at home are increasingly limited in their movement space. Everyone feels the same way. On the other hand, Covid-19 has brought benefits for stay at home moms like me in terms of getting virtual communication skills.
Learning more new things from home
Starting from knowing what Zoom is, I am as a stay at home mom have the opportunity to learn more new things than before Covid-19. By utilizing virtual communication media such as whatsapp and zoom, I have the opportunity to add new skills including learning English and Turkish in online courses, learning about food preparation, cooking, baking, writing, and knitting. One of institutions that provide #englishwiththebest is #TBI or #thebritishinstitute, including the #tbidigitallearning facility. Everything can be done from home.
Increasing income
When I was able to adapt to the new normal era and the willingness to learn to communicate virtually with various media, it turned out to be an opportunity for me to work from home as a content writer, especially when we master foreign languages such as English. Working for a stay at home like me is entertainment. Entertainment, fun and earn money.
Saving Energy, Time and Cost
When we have virtual communication skills, we will not be awkward dealing with the media. Utilizing this virtual communication media properly will support us to work smartly. Not only that, we will also save our energy to meet someone somewhere, save travel time, and of course save the costs we spend on travel or costs in a meeting.
The new normal era is like a calling, a greeting ‘Hello’. A call for us to be ready and adapt to improve the quality of life and stay away from stressful conditions due to the limited space we currently have. How? Are we ready?
