I wrote a small text about how I feel about using video communication with people. It’s a short 3-minute read. Maybe some members would be interested in going deeper into the discussion.
3 Likes
Hello there! I can certainly relate to your quarantine experience… I am little fortunate maybe bcoz I am freelancer and Covid did not disrupt my experience much… I live in Bangalore, India but planning to return to Canada where I was/am resident. Right now, I am trying to focusing on my start-up for eLearning and a Social Learning network. If you wanna talk, you are welcome… 
Hello Sergio and thanks for the article.
Somehow I hope that video will help bring people together because it’s actually a dose of reality. I could imagine a world where offices become studios located in or nearby people’s homes, with workers arranged by approximate time zones rather than location. But for that we need communities of people who live near each another, through recreation activities such as sports, events, games and so on because there’s no substitute for people getting together.
1 Like
@zafar, Thank you so much for your thoughts! I’m happy for you that COVID didn’t affect your experience as much. I’m curious about your idea of social learning. 
@Free Thank you also for opening up about this topic. I believe when we’re isolated and self-focused, our mental health is at higher risk. When we start caring for our community and practicing compassion, our mental health improves, and therefore our physical health also improves.
2 Likes
My life is the same for pandemic. I only FaceTime one person but I love it and need it like oxygen. It’s a great thing but zoom is insecure and should be shunned as there are many alternatives.
“It’s like when your mother just wants to tell you the good news because they think you’re too far away to help them.”
I like this point. I really dunno how is this scientifically backed, but I have the feeling in video calls we are missing these things in between facts, glue, holding relationship (business, colleague, friend etc. relationship) together. Holding back on expressing feelings because you are worried they will be misunderstood. It’s like having an intimate chat with your best friend in a bus. Inability to get deeper as a human being. Video calls are very factual.
Hi @Luciak! Thank you for your message. The impact that communication has on us as humans is a very complex and intriguing topic. Some studies suggest that even though we make eye-contact while having a video call with someone, video communication is not the same as face-to-face communication.
“Face-to-face and video-mediated communication: A comparison of dialogue structure and task performance.” https://psycnet-apa-org.ez224.periodicos.capes.gov.br/fulltext/1997-06154-002.html (accessed Jun. 15, 2020) conducted some experiments using audio, video, and face-to-face communication and found a discrepancy between the findings for face-to-face interaction and those for Video Mediated Communications with eye contact offering three possible explanations for this. I strongly recommend reading the whole article if you have access, but the key points are:
-
When you’re talking to someone on a screen, you tend to ignore visual cues you wouldn’t if you were talking to the same person face-to-face. It’s like you’re watching TV.
-
When you’re talking to someone remotely, you tend towards being more formal, and this changes the way communication happens.
-
Also, the familiarity with the medium itself influences the behavior of who is taking part in the conversation.
Hi @Broodwich! Thank you for taking part in the discussion! I agree with you that without video communication, things would be even harder than they already are. Zoom has missed a chance to make things right from the beginning, and now it’s paying for its mistakes, but I still believe they have a helpful tool, and they’re already taking security more seriously, at least for their paying clients.
1 Like
Hi Sergio ,
thank you for sharing your dual views on how video calls are shaping the future of connections ;
I believe the key is in how people project themselves online; either with “faking” intentions linked to the expression of their ego; or genuinely seeking real connections from their soulful intentions ;
I was an early adopter of social media over 14 years ago and back in 2016 i experienced what i call an online shift ; I connected online with people who were aligned to seeing a world of infinite collaboration as I do ;
And I transposed these healthy online connections offline over the years and established a new way of connecting; I believe this is where the power of online connections lies;
The mission here is that we all have to individually be willing to stop pretending that the screen between us is our new protective mask, time to step into realness starting online for our healthiest social evolution ;
Hi Lucia,
you have pinpointed a social habit most of us are guilty of; holding back on expressing what you owe to each other; aka the truth; And as per the mother example it is often to protect and care for others who are not in a position to help; However by refraining to saying how things are and the feelings associated to the situations experienced, we are ourselves creating and compounding the misunderstanding trend … I have found that 1 on 1 online can be as powerful and deep as a 1 on 1 offline only if we decide to and are 100% present to the person we are facing at that moment; We have simply not yet rewired our cognitive ways to the online communicative cues of exchanging; It is all a question of willingness, openness and forging the habit to see online communications to be as powerful as any other ways of connecting ;
Hi Alex,
I also wanted to respond to your view; as it is aligned to what I deeply believe we can all aim at; Finding our online/offline balance is key to the future of connections ;
And I have the sense that bringing a dose of realness to our Online connections is key to reignite our natural ability to connect and transpose it all offline the healthiest way 
1 Like
Hi @Audz! It’s good to see you here again, taking part in the discussions!
I believe you just touched a pivotal point. Expanding your mind through online connections with people (maybe using video connections as a preferred tool), but with clear intentions of taking at least some of these relationships offline, upgrading them to a new level of quality and meaningfulness.
I had a personal experience using this approach with someone who became my wife. We met online and only used IRC (Internet Relay Chat) to talk to each other - yep, that was a long time ago - for two months before we decided to shift our relationship to the real world gradually. Fast-forward five years later, and the rest is history. 
1 Like
This is indeed a beautiful personal story you had meeting your wife!
This Online shift can be part of our healthiest social evolution if we all individually and intentionally decide it to be I am actually writing a book about this all !
I’m curious about your book. Please let us know when it’s out!
1 Like
Thanks for your response @swanderl . Unluckily I don’t have access to the website u posted. I would love to read the article.
Hey @Audz. I agree with you it’s up to us to try to be as true as possible in our online conversations as in those happening offline. However, obstacles this medium is laying in front of us are making it much much harder. Therefore I don’t think it’s possible to rewire. We can try hard, but it will be like running with rocks in ur pockets. No matter how hard you try it will never be as pleasant as without them. … I just find it always easy to explain myself things with metaphors =D
This discussion inspired me to write part II of the original post. I’m happy to share it with the community.