As a college student, the next few weeks will define my generation.
We can support our nation’s effort to suffocate the coronavirus pandemic and help a new normal arise from the ashes of the experience, or we can fail to own the responsibility of mature adults in society. Our forefathers were asked to storm Normandy and march through the jungles of Vietnam. We’ve been asked to wash our hands and stay at home.
Obviously, our obligations are no comparison to those of our ancestors, but it is now our turn to do what we can to protect people who are at serious risk. No one is shooting at us. Most millennials and Gen Zers are going to be just fine, which is why it’s especially infuriating to watch college students party, travel, and flock to spring break beaches. It’s understandable that many college students would want to spend their newly found time off from classes to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap flights and accommodations. Ebenezer Scrooge would fly business class to Bora Bora right now. But the risk this poses to others is just too great.
Young people make the perfect vectors for the disease, with very few symptoms but all the infectivity. We could be passing the disease to our loved ones and have no idea we’re even sick. Surrendering the opportunity to see the world or have some fun is all it takes potentially to save thousands of lives, a paltry fee indeed.
For as long as I can remember, baby boomers have referred to younger generations as lazy, selfish, and spoiled. I’m sure the greatest generation thought the same thing of baby boomers until they earned their stripes. This is our opportunity to do just that.
Maybe it won’t be with an M16, but we have the chance to save a lot of lives, proving our competence and responsibility along the way. COVID-19 is going to be the first of many challenges our generation is asked to meet. Climate change, political polarization, a crippling national debt, or maybe even another pandemic will all have to be addressed before we pass the torch on to our children. Whether we are remembered as valiant and compassionate or foolish and selfish will depend on the choices we make in the next few months. We can help the COVID-19 growth curve level out as quickly as possible, sparing countless lives and, hopefully, a global recession. Or we can seek short-term satisfaction, doom some elderly, and eviscerate the retirement hopes of anyone with a 401(k).
While these stakes seem high enough, even more rests on our generation’s decisions. Successfully navigating the coronavirus pandemic will also require us to become adept at skills that will serve us and our nation well for the rest of the century. Working efficiently, connecting healthily, and consuming appropriately without leaving home will become essential skills. Society and commerce have already become more digitally based, but the coronavirus will rapidly accelerate the transformation.
Using office space is becoming a relic of the industrial revolution and is unnecessarily wasteful for many businesses and employees. On average, the public burns an hour’s worth of gas and time daily in order to cram ourselves into a congested cubicle for eight hours. We have all of the technological tools for remote meetings, presentations, and spreadsheets, but, for the most part, we have refused to transition. Successfully dealing with self-quarantining will prove that office life can be a thing of the past and force businesses to take the necessary steps to allow employees to work from their homes.
Perhaps even more important than working online is maintaining social connections digitally. Humans are innately social beings, and we crave each other’s presence. Prolonged social distancing is bound to put a serious strain on our emotional health as cabin fever sets in. Until now, social media has been a truly lackluster substitute for the real thing. After all, scrolling through meme pages and “influencers” hawking the new trend is hardly comparable to in-person interactions.
This has to change. We will have to get better at using the tools that exist to achieve more genuine connections or build new ones as we sequester ourselves in the future.
We have all the resources needed to succeed, but we will fail by acting alone. We can come out the other side of this pandemic stronger and better equipped than when we entered it, with an economy and culture that has transformed to allow society to dominate the ordeals of the next century. We can do this.
Oliver Oz is a junior at Harvard College, which shifted to remote classes for the rest of the year.
