Contextualising COVID-19 as a Digital Pandemic

Abstract

Growing systemic complexity and interdependence have made a large variety of systems (economic, public health, cyber, etc.) susceptible to irreversible and cascading failure. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is indicative of such complexity and currently causing vast human suffering all around the world, but also triggers a global online revolution with new opportunities, risks, threats and dangers. Starting from its description as the world's first digital pandemic, the central aim of this editorial is to contextualise Homo Virtualis's special issue on the COVID-19 disruption to the digital landscape and its societal impact. A concise overview of such disruption is presented and a few examples are given, along with a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives on mediatisation and globalisation, with special emphasis on Globalisation 4.0 and the transition to Artificial Intelligence Society.

Digitainability—Digital Competences Post-COVID-19 for a Sustainable Society

“…This paper sought to analyze what digital competences post-COVID-19 are necessary for the development and consolidation of a sustainable society and, more specifically, digitainability in a COVID-19 pandemic context. As Tsekeris and Mastrogeorgiou [26] (p. 9) argue, the profound changes that this pandemic has caused and will continue to cause in all aspects of individuals' lives (educational processes being a central aspect) mean that the world has to prepare for different futures, which will be fundamentally digital, and that a "postnormal condition" is emerging, whose fundamental characteristics are "[ . .…”

“…However, in this context of digital change, COVID-19 has also amplified previously existing inequalities [21,26,44,50]. As Raffaghelli [50] (p. 3) states,…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused major impacts worldwide [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. It remains to be seen whether these changes are temporary or lasting, taking shape in a new normal [31,33].…”

“…It remains to be seen whether these changes are temporary or lasting, taking shape in a new normal [31,33]. This can even be considered the world's first digital age pandemic [26,[34][35][36][37][38]. Among its varied impacts, COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation in a more or less supported way [21,26,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49].…”

Cyber Cooperation in the Framework of the Asean Regime

“…The pandemic shows such complexity and is now a worldwide issue, especially in the ASEAN region. On the other hand, it sparks an online revolution across the globe with new opportunities, risks, threats, and dangers (Tsekeris & Mastrogeorgiou, 2020). Therefore, the ASEAN countries should form strong cooperation due to many anonymous and impromptu attacks.…”