2 minute read
PERSPECTIVE
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HUMAN ZOOM MOMENTS
YOU FORGOT TO take the trash out and you can hear the dump truck coming down the street, leaving you with the split-second decision to either frantically jump up from your video call or deal with another week’s worth of trash in your trash can. Your newborn is crying in the other room, hungry for both food and attention. You accidentally left yourself unmuted. You’re trying to check your phone, keeping it just barely out of sight of your camera. You accidentally sent that chat message about how boring your meeting is to the entire group chat instead of just to your empathetic friend. Your Wi-Fi decided to go slow and now you’re stuck reconnecting or, even worse, frozen on your screen. You have another commitment right after this one, but your hair needs doing, your teeth need brushing, and somehow you’ve managed to sneak your pajama pants into 10,764 meetings in a row because if no one can see your plaid pajama-clad legs when you’re on zoom, it doesn’t count, right?
We’ve been there. You’ve probably been there too. If you have used Zoom in any capacity whatsoever, you know those moments. If you haven’t had one yourself, surely you’ve witnessed them from the other end of the Zoom call. Although social distancing may require, well, distancing ourselves from others, the “human” moments of Zoom can also help remind us of what really matters—the humans on the other end of the call. Despite our world appearing different than it may have a year ago, the need for human connection has never been greater.
We can take advantage of opportunities that allow us, as acts of faith, to reach out to others, connect deeply with those around us, and by doing so, “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees”1 of those who may need it most during unprecedented and unpredicted moments.
So here’s to the human moments of Zoom. The ones that embarrass us, connect us, and remind us just how important the human part of humanity really is.
— SAGE W. BROWN (PUBLIC HEALTH, ’20)
1. D&C 81:5
