As more of the world enters “lock down” mode, strange behaviours seem to be becoming quickly normalised.
The big one seems to be the propensity to do video calls.
Just get on with it
I read a tweet which resonated as I’d just said the exact thing to two separate people.
Still getting people proposing in-person meetings “when this is all over, in April”. This isn’t my field, but I really don’t think you should be planning on that. Move to video and get on with things if you can.
After reading it I’ve begun accepting that video calls are probably the way to go, even if it’s not as “intimate” as meeting someone for a coffee.
As yet, I haven’t met anyone for the first time over video but, with a shared experience, it hopefully won’t be too weird. The trade off seems to make sense.
Clunky verbs
Maybe it’s biased towards Americans I’ve spoken to/ been reading tweets about, but Zoom seems to have replaced Skype as the go to verb for video call.
“Let’s Zoom”, “We can Zoom about it” seems much more in keeping with what people are saying. To suggest a Skyping feels a bit like you’d have a Yahoo email address.
I still mostly use Google Meet, but find it clumsy to use “Meet” as a verb in this situation.
I wonder if Google considered that when rebranding their video conference service…
A virtual dinner date
Friends I’ve been speaking to have done all sorts of things over video conference such as yoga classes, business speed dating and Friday beers.
Probably the weirdest one I’ve now done is a double date.
My girlfriend and I had a video call with two friends in Kenya. Owing to the time difference they were having dinner and we made the effort to have some wine and olives whilst catching up.
The dress code was smart casual (above the waist).
Obviously there was some friction in the fidelity of our conversation, but on the whole, it was a lot lot better than not doing it at all.
Voffee?
In light of these new concepts becoming more commonplace it’s only natural that new words and phrases will emerge to describe them.
Often they seem to start with a portmanteau (video blogging = vlogging) and so keep an eye out for any new words or phrases entering the lexicon.
If people vhugging (virtual hug) at the start of a video chat I may give up hope…
In other news…
Despite the uncertainty in all things coronavirus I have been able to start work on releasing a podcast this week with a new client.
One “trend” that people are talking about is that, with more people staying inside, there’ll be an uptick in people wanting to hear the human voice. Hence listen to podcasts.
We’ll see if anything materialises but for now, it’s nice to be keeping busy.
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