In times like this, when we’re experiencing the first global pandemic in living history, the digital world is both a blessing and a curse.

I live in NSW, Australia. My aged parents live in Western Australia, as does my sister and her family, our son, our niece, my sister in law, and much more of our extended family. Our daughter and her partner live in Queensland. Currently, those borders are closed to us, so phone, FaceTime, Zoom, and social media allow us to connect via voice, text, and even ‘face to face.’

I enjoy social media in many of its forms, and it can be incredibly helpful, fun, and of course there are the cat pics.

It’s been complicated recently. As the pandemic has rolled on, and all over the world people have been living in constrained circumstances, social media has exploded in both good and bad ways.

There are some highlights. There’s a great Bin Isolation Outing group on Facebook that has provided significant entertainment to hundreds of thousands of people. The cat and I have sung along with Pub Choir (Couch Choir), and people have posted all kinds of thought fun and inspiring things.

But social media most recently has highlighted other things, and quite frequently those things are driven by perceived ‘rights’ that are currently ‘being infringed.’ Tonight I saw a post that (for whatever reason) really irritated me. There was a picture of a sign stating that cash was not accepted, with the following statement below: If i walk into a shop that does this i will walk back out. Cash is legal tender and if we cave into this rubbish we cave into the cashless society. Reserve your right to hold cash. If we don’t we will be slaves even more than we already are. BOYCOTT no matter how inconvenient it is.

It irritated me because we’re in the middle of a pandemic. We’re doing social distancing, increasing our hygiene, and staying home to assist in stopping the spread. We now have contact free delivery, and hand sanitiser all over the place. Not using cash is simply a small part of a bigger whole, to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

I think it irritated me because I’ve seen so many things recently on social media about ‘my rights,’ ‘my freedoms’ and ‘my choices.’ Now, I’m not going to disagree that we do have rights and freedoms.

I am going to say that we have those rights and freedoms only because we subscribe to working for the greater good. That’s actually what society and community is. It’s about helping each other and working together because it’s better for everyone if we do.

When the chips are down, pulling together and helping each other is even more essential. Putting up with a bit of personal inconvenience in order to keep those who are more vulnerable safe, seems to me to be nothing more than normal human decency. If that means I don’t use cash right now, then I don’t use cash right now. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

You see, this is not about ‘me’ right now. It’s very much about ‘us.’ And by ‘us’ I mean everyone. If you’re reading this and you don’t want to follow your government’s instructions regarding distancing, numbers of people in certain places or travel, remember that it’s not actually about ‘you.’

It’s very much about our most vulnerable, and it’s also about those who think they’re not vulnerable, because with this bug, how do we know we’re not? The evolving science around COVID-19 sheds light on new things every day, and the numbers of deaths astounds me. So many in such a short time, and all over the world the toll continues to rise.

So when you’re frustrated, remember: It’s not about you. It’s about all of us.