TRAFFIC by Alma Reyes Camera ready? Mic on? Volume up? Good background? Fresh makeup? Unstained shirt? Lights, camera, action! Yes, you’ve just been “ZOOMed” in. The world is staring at you. But, there’s no director, no line prompter, no props man, and no location shooting—just you, your private corner, and a dozen tiny faces in pixelated boxes. For many of us relying on constant Internet feeding and addictive social media while enduring the long-standing pandemic that is frantically working so hard to shelter us within our walls, our computer screen is behaving bit strangely these days. It’s crawling with rows of tiny frames of jiggling faces next to each other, like sitting inside a production control room of a TV newsroom or a stock exchange trading room, with twenty active TV screens plastered on a chess board flashing simultaneously, except there is no action in the background, but only sculptural
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busts with mouths moving against a flat backdrop —just a wall, curtain, bookshelf, painting, or if you’re creative enough, a borrowed interior for that make-believe setup. The simulated interpersonal experience is a parade of anxious voices trapped in rectangles dying to speak their turn on ONE screen, your screen. You can’t seem to get away with it. The checkered windows are everywhere—on YouTube, orchestras or pop singers staging remote home concerts; on “Stay Home” comedy shows, hosts “zooming” with multiple guests; on TV variety shows, personalities commenting in separate boxed frames; on news and weather reports; in schools used for home schooling; in hospitals, homes for the elderly, restaurants, and of course, companies; then, right in your very own living room, with your friends and family. ZOOM, the explosive mobile application, founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan from California, U.S.A., and formally released in 2013, was initially engineered for hosting teleconferences in companies. With the sudden surprise of the Coronavirus, the application rocketed 2.13 million
downloads in March 2020, and, like a stinging virus, has infected 200 million users on a daily average basis. While this hip phenomenon looks very refreshing and exciting to many, recent studies show an increased flow of fatigue and insecurity among ZOOM users. The application has faced criticisms regarding cybersecurity, for one. Problems with hackers spying on ZOOM calls, unconscious sharing of Meeting IDs across other social media, leaving windows open for anyone to crash in, ZOOM bombing and its voluntary share of offensive images, and end-to-end encryption, are just some of the disconcerting issues that had to be handled. More importantly, however, are the mental and behavioural implications that may affect the users unconsciously. Views have expressed mild indications of social pressure to stay constantly focused on bodily movement, tone, and pitch of voice that would usually require a steadier level of perfection and more potent energy, versus face-to-face communication. The obligatory necessity to balance body and mind is claimed to be exhausting at some point. Silence can be a disturbing occurrence in group video chats, which is easily interpreted as a technical fault, whereas a few
MAY - JUNE 2020
