What We Lost

I share Lopp's disclaimers. I think the broad adoption and familiarity with technology like Zoom has been a huge game changer. I lead a global team of nearly 500 people and over half of them live nowhere close to me. Using Zoom has allowed me to build better and more meaningful connections. In the past I used to wait for trips, now I do things much more as needed. This is all a good thing, and we should continue to adopt and take advantage of all of this.

However, I also don't believe for a second that our brains are fooled by this technology. Yes, you can see and interact with people better than we ever have before. But your brain isn't experiencing another human, it is seeing a 2D pixel image. The serotonin that would be released? Not for this experience.

Every single of these senses, yeah, even vestibular and proprioception, are limited in a video conference call. You do not see the entire person; you see them from the chest up. Your hearing is limited and frustratingly altered by the milliseconds of lag and subsequent awkward interruptions to the conversation when someone attempts to insert a vital fact only stomped by the current speaker who hasn’t heard the interruption yet. You probably don’t think smell, like taste, is essential, but that is because you’ve been sitting all by your lonesome in your home office for the two+ years (like me) and have forgotten that smell, while not critical, contributes to the information tapestry of an in-person. And touch, the feel of the table in front of you. The slight echo you feel in the wood when someone sets their coffee cup on the table.

We are not digital beings. We can simulate various experiences in that world, and at times that is vastly superior than any other options. But it is critical that we still have those organic, human experiences. And that is true in all the aspects of our lives.