From Boomer to Zoomer in 70 Years
… or maybe in just 70 days. Soon after I began sheltering in
place because I am a Baby Boomer and hence in a vulnerable category for infection
by the new coronavirus, I was introduced to ZOOM because of a meeting I needed
to attend. It then dawned on me that I could use this program myself for
one-on-one conversations with friends … and in particular over a meal, just as
if I were having them over for dinner.
I suggested this to a friend and we tried it out. It worked
like a charm. Each of us had a talking head perched opposite him on his respective
dining room table while we ate and chatted. Of course it was strictly potluck!
Although on a date I would be able to order a special meal from a restaurant to
be delivered to the lady’s doorstep.
Then it occurred to me that I could use the program to talk
to people who were not local. Indeed, I immediately went for broke and arranged
chats with two people I know in Australia – literally on the opposite side of
the globe from where I live! And the medium was so natural and welcoming, especially
in the midst of such unprecedented social isolation, that our chats went on for
hours: one of them for 6 hours!!! … with no desire to stop except that the
Aussie needed to get to bed at his 2 a.m. to get up for work at 5 a.m. (This
was with a fellow philosopher, you see, for whom talking is like breathing.)
And in fact the philosophical chats have been so delightful and productive
that I’ve begun to record some of them and post them on YouTube.
Where will this end? All I can tell you now is that I have
become more social under “lockdown” than I was before the pandemic. Hats off to
ZOOM!
Comments