Blog

Like many people around the world, I have been spending the last few weeks at home pouring hours into Nintendo’s newest hit game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In what the New York Times describe as “The Game for the Coronavirus Moment,” players take up the role of a human who moves to a deserted island to start a new town alongside their anthropomorphic animal neighbors.

Since the early days of the COVID-19 crisis (the past few months!), the spatial and temporal enormity of the situation has been tellingly conveyed in mapped data visualizations.

After more than two weeks following the shelter in place guidelines, I have developed some sort of a routine. That is the only way I can get myself to do any work. As a graduate student, I feel the pressure to be productive even in the middle of a pandemic. My most productive hours usually occur between 7am and 2pm. I have never tried to understand why that is the case. However, since being confined to my apartment, I have been unable to work at the same level of efficiency even during my golden hours.

Many of us were already using our phones for the majority of our waking hours, but during the current shelter-in-place-measures, digital technology has become more important than ever.