Sept 24

The world of Zoom feels in some ways like an alternate reality. Everyone sits in their little box waiting their turn to speak. I don’t like the new reality of Zoom meetings. I find it hard to stay engaged and hard to connect with the other people in the meeting. This morning I started my day with a Zoom meeting.

I understand why people like Zoom. I appreciate the good points of meeting in this alternate universe, a digital universe. I know that it is a valid way of interacting, of communicating, and is far better than the old fashioned conference call. I am just not interested in participating if I don’t have to. Maybe I am just getting old and stuck in my ways. Don’t laugh, I know the truth. I know we are stuck with Zoom meetings from now on. If only I had bought stock in Zoom last year…

Blustery sky rolled overhead as the day moved on. I needed to attend another zoom meeting in the afternoon, I wanted to prepare, I also wanted to connect with human beings. So I went to the office where the zoom meeting was going to take place. I sat with a good friend and connected; we were able to agree on some action plans and waited for the other people to join the meeting.

Electrical impulses fire the synapsis of our computer world and link us to the outside. Link us virtually with other people, near and far. One of them was on a computer in the next room. We had to shut the door to keep us from hearing an echo of ourselves. I couldn’t help but see the irony of it all. In the same building, four of us were meeting two other people on a screen. Thirty years ago this would have seemed like a scene out of Star Trek. Last year it would have been strange. Now, it is part of our existence, it is part of our new normal.

I realized as the meeting progressed why I disliked Zoom meetings so much. The larger the meeting the harder it is to interact. With my afternoon meeting, we had four of us in the same building and we could interact normally. With the other two people on the screen we could communicate, we couldn’t interact. Everyone waits their turn to speak. That is a good thing except when you have twenty people in a meeting. It is impossible for everyone to exchange ideas, the ideas can get lost in cyberspace. I found it hard to remain engaged when the meeting is large. At least in the afternoon meeting with four screens, we got something done. It wasn’t a waste of electrical air in a vacuum of the Zoom universe.

As technology advances and we have gained connections further across the world. We are losing part of ourselves. The coronaverse has accelerated this effect. Human connections are being lost even as they are being advanced and expanded. Multi-tasking has become prevalent as many of us can do two to three things at once while we sit in front of the obnoxious screens that rule our lives.

It is time to connect with nature, time to connect with each other, time to remove the screens, and recharge my soul.

Time to go fishing.