We’re living in a strange kind of virtual reality right now, perched on the precipice between ‘before’ and ‘after’. COVID-19 has shifted the ground beneath us. Plans have been scrapped; rules rewritten.
Forced to spend extended periods of time at home while socially isolated, many of us turned to our devices for information, connection and comfort. At the height of the health crisis, Facebook saw a 70% increase in Messenger group video calls, while use of WhatsApp jumped by 40%.
Then, using her smartphone, a teenager took us to a Minneapolis street, where the whole world watched the shocking killing of George Floyd. The subsequent Black Lives Matter protests played out in person and online, the global rallying cries overlapping and amplifying each other.
In 2016, Professor Klaus Schwab, founder…
