LIFE'S RICH PATTERN
When in doubt, Zoom out BY LIZ FOSTER
As the world struggles through managing Covid we’ve moved from resistance to weary acceptance. Early enthusiastic ‘lockdown hobbies’ (baking, sewing, crafty stuff that made non-creatives shudder) proudly displayed on social media have come and gone, along with the initial burst of nervous energy. We might now all be experts at video conferencing, but it’s taking a while for folks to understand how the private has become more public than ever. In case you didn’t realise - you are being seen and heard unless you turn your mic and camera off. If you get up, people will see what’s on your bottom. If you take your shirt off, people will see what’s under your shirt. Whatever you do, don’t keep your earphones in if you go to the bathroom. The good news is we’ve been learning together. At the aged care facility I work at, we set up regular family Zoom calls with residents. Zoom-connecting 103-year-old Olive with her 79-year old son was a challenge I’m proud to say we met. There are gaffs a-plenty though – like the boss who made her avatar a potato and couldn’t work out how to change it, so a spud she remains. Or the student calmly rolling a spliff during an online tutorial. My friend Jen was multi-tasking making dinner with watching television and Zooming in to a worldwide sales forum. Video off and sound muted, she fired sporadic instructions to her family over the top of the Bachelor theme tune. Her blood froze minutes later when, glancing at the screen, there was a raft of global comments to the tune of ‘whoever is having meatballs for dinner please mute their microphone.’ She learned the hard way that pressing the spacebar unmutes Zoom. It’s easy to forget to be professional, with Snuggles the cat making a guest appearance or the postman delivering that thing you ordered online. A friend had a complicated Zoom with her lawyer recently. There was
a basket of washing with a pizza box perched on top in the background, with nary a sniff of fee reduction. There’s no excuse, especially as you can pick any other funky background, (make sure to stay in the same spot or the background swallows you up like the Star Trek teleporter.) It looks like we’re stuck with it, but buyer beware – if you want or need any support, good luck. “We strive to answer this support request as soon as we can. With the surge, it will likely take us much longer to respond to your ticket” was the answer I got to a query, nine days after submitting it. Nine days to say they’ll get back to me as soon as possible, mind, not nine days to actually answer it. But would I like to share how I’m using Zoom for my business, and upgrade my account in the meantime? At least our aged care residents now get to see more distant family members, so it has its place. If Zoom ever get around to answering my query, I might even keep it. But it’ll be nice interacting with people in the real world and substituting elbow taps for real hugs and kisses again. TVO 9
