Enjoying Mingling

Article after article is trumpeting how much people are enjoying interacting with others again or how much they long to do so (see this one, for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/insider/working-empty-newsroom.html )

Of course we’re glad to be with others again!

We’re all desperate, whether we’re introverts or extraverts, for a good conversation.

We communicate via a range of sensory channels, only a few of which can be transmitted via Zoom: we say words, those words are inflected in one way or another, we gesture, we stand at various distances and orientations to each other, we make eye contact or not with each other, our facial expressions change, all of which has meaning that matters and that we use to determine what whomever we’re talking to is REALLY saying.  Research is even starting to indicate that we smell differently at different times and those varying smells send whoever is nearby key messages also.

With current technology, it’s hard to have a meaningful conversation with someone else, one that goes beyond superficial comments or banal topics, without seeing the white of their eyes, in real life.