I’m Paula Santolaya, reporting live from SANTOLIVE in my virtual reality. Have comments, opinions, or suggestions? Post them in the comments section or email me at info@santolive.com.

The coronavirus pandemic has not only produced a change in the way we live, work or relate to people, but also many people have stayed at home, especially in rural areas.

The quarantine has exposed the enormous challenge facing our society: the digital divide.  People who live in the disconnected world have suffered the impossibility of looking for a job, promoting a business or interrupting their face-to-face training and learning. 

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has already said:

«The digital divide has become a matter of life and death for people who do not have access to basic health information.»

The health crisis caused by Covid-19 has exposed a new inequality that has revealed the economic and social concerns of part of the world population and revealed the lack of common legislation on the use of technology among industrialized countries. 

The digital divide is a reality around the world and its total closure depends on companies, organizations and governments cooperating and assuming their commitment to put in place material and legal mechanisms that make digital inclusion a universal and inalienable right. 

To connect or to die, that is the question.