The Zoom Opportunity

“Zoom” is now an active verb in our vocabulary.

You Zoom someone, say “Let’s Zoom!” or you’re feeling all Zoomed out.

(*This is true for any video conferencing software like Teams, Webex, Blue Jeans, Google Meet, FaceTime, Skype etc. Replace ‘Zoom’ with your go-to)

Zoom has its limitations and isn’t perfect, but I am so thankful it exists. Especially for my friends and family to hang out. In fact, as an expat, I actually see my US friends more now because everyone is hanging out in the same place (Zoom).

Video conferencing has great potential to continue as a core aspect of our interactions, and particularly quality conversations.

Hear me out.

At the?height of our lockdown in Western Australia, we wanted social interaction and played a drinking game over Zoom with six friends. We used a playstation program called Jack in the Box. This software enabled us to play guessing games where we would submit answers on our phone. It’s a cross between trivia and Pictionary.

In principle, it should work brilliantly to create a shared experience and connect with our friends.

In practice, it was a circle of Zoom hell that left everyone feeling annoyed.

It worked well enough for the first and second game, but for the third game it started to feel stretched. I forget how drinking games get very LOUD and the boundaries of social norms quickly dissolve into mayhem. When we arrived at this stage, the game quickly fell apart. All of us were being boisterous on Zoom and no one could really hear or understand anyone else.

A completely different experience is smaller conversations with 1–2 people.

Perhaps, a more meaningful experience.

My friend Daniel reached out near the end of 2020 and asked if I wanted to catch up over Zoom. Daniel and I went to university together, and were quite close. As the years went on though, we naturally drifted and maybe only chatted once a year before this. A classic tale of adulthood.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a positive impact on my socialising with friends from the States. They were all forced into an online environment where distance didn’t matter.

As a result, we were able to hang out more easily without perceived barriers.

When Daniel reached out to me, this would have been the first time we had hung out in years. I don’t know if we would have instigated it if the world had continued as normal…

A larger gathering with some of my closest college friends. I routinely pin the camera on our dog Sunny and the vast Australian sky.

Anyway, Daniel and I found time to chat — his Friday night is my Saturday morning, which worked brilliantly. He’s calling in from NYC and shows me the Empire State Building out the window. I‘m calling in from Perth, Western Australia and show him the different Australian plants that grow in my garden.

On Zoom, we share physical aspects of our daily lives. It is so rich to see and put things in context. See how we live. It adds a degree of intimacy to our interactions. By inviting our friends and colleagues into our homes, we show them what our nest looks like.

My Zoom background includes a bookcase, plants and heaps of bizarre and colourful pictures on the wall. You can also see my hat stand with half a dozen big and colourful hats — as a redhead in the hot Australian desert I have a pretty strong hat game.

Beyond responding to our physical environments, Daniel and I connected through rich conversation. We discussed the life admin updates, and then wandered into our experiences and observations about the COVID pandemic.

With just two of us, and both of us skilled conversationalists, we conducted a perfect conversational dance. One person asks a big question, the other listens and responds, followed by a continuous thread of observations, insights and experiences. Quality listening enabled us to move further into topics, chipping away until we struck golden insights or a fossil of truth.

Looking back and remembering that call fills me with warmth. A glow that starts just under my ribcage and expands upward. We shared a golden conversation, and the output is connection.

Connection fuels our spirit and souls.

Who knew we’d get such a gift from a moment of global crisis.

This is when I realised how effective Zoom is for holding quality conversations.

You see some of the body language and facial expressions, and everyone takes turns asking questions and sharing ideas.

It’s harder to interrupt or talk over people. I don’t think making eye contact through Zoom is required, so in a way it’s easier to listen. I’m not focused on making-eye-contact-so-they-think-I’m-listening.

So I’m here for it.

Let’s keep meeting online. We can design our online interactions to leverage the benefits and create meaningful connection.

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