Zoom socializing

[redbird]

I spent most of the afternoon looking at the laptop screen, because two different friends invited me to Zoom parties today, at mostly overlapping times.

To keep the conversations manageable, both friends were using breakout rooms. This worked, except that I barely got to talk to either of my hosts. But I had some fun conversations about topics including bits of history and politics, as well as catching up on each others' lives.

I like liv's parents, which isn't surprising, but is pleasing. I don't remember who said, in that conversation, that he thought peak Somerville was 7Ate9 bakery celebrating Shakespeare's birthday by giving free cheesecakes to people who could recite a sonnet, but I think he has a point. I do wish I'd managed to say more than hi to her, before she decided it was time to put everyone in smaller groups, so conversation would be possible.

At the second party, I'm particularly glad I got to talk to lydy and to alanro. I took a break between the parties because i wanted to get up, move around a bit, and give my eyes a break from looking at Zoom meeting rooms.

Tomorrow I'm talking to my mother. The plan is for her to call me 11ish; I was thinking of suggesting that we try Zoom, but maybe not after three hours or so on Zoom today.

Comments

[athenais]

It's easy to overdo Zoom, I find. But I'm glad it's an option, it's always so nice to actually see people's faces when I talk to them. As fond as I am of the phone, just about none of my friends like phone calls.

[coth]

Brian has almost no Zoom tolerance, and I find a couple of hours in a day is about mine. But it is nice to see people, and some of the Zoom chats have been really good and a blessing in these otherwise unsocial times.

[mrissa]

"This was nice but I didn't really get to talk to the host/guest of honor enough" is such a standard party failure mode (or even not-failure-but-not-optimization mode) that in some ways it's a little bit cozy that Zoom has replicated it.