Communications are a big part of our lives: they’re affected by body language and other non-verbal cues that need to be continuously observed every time you’re meeting, talking or listening to others. In good times, we do pretty well with those but in these Covid-19 times we are having to adjust. I always thought of myself as a keen observer of people but Zoom changes the game. Facial expressions, grooming, multi-tasking, and the backgrounds we use are all vividly on display there. We’re not used to sitting and staring at people, but on Zoom that’s exactly what we do. And seeing all that’s on the screen can be somewhere between mesmerizing and disconcerting. Face to face we can look away, on a phone call we may multi-task, but on Zoom those behaviors are fully on display – even if others can’t see them directly, they can notice them. And while we probably wouldn’t comment on these things otherwise, Zoom etiquette seems to demand it. So, we all have to cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation – the rules aren’t yet fully formed for this, but they’re probably coming. Be an observer and a respecter of communication etiquette today.
John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925): American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury
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