Are people more boring on Zoom than they are in person?

It’s a little different talking through a screen, but I have not thought people became more boring, nor more performance-oriented. I have noticed some people in Zoom classes not participating in groups, but that also just makes sense to me given the format.

Mainly I’ve enjoyed that I’ve seen more people who otherwise I wouldn’t get the opportunity to see and talk with.

I find the format to be disturbing. The lack of real timing, the delays, the inevitable hiccups in connectivity, and the overall experience is so forced and inhuman, I end up feeling quite alienated and lonely. My “boring” level is likely fairly high to begin with, and I suspect it increases significantly during Zoom calls.

The timing is part of the problem. It’s not as fun to have to wait very patiently for the other person to stop talking. I know that’s the polite thing to do even in real life, but sometimes interruptions are a good thing.

I like being able to see people on a screen vs not seeing them at all, but real life is better. I do like seeing people on screen who I would not have seen otherwise.

With close friends, when it’s just 2–5 of us it’s still really good. In groups that are larger it’s mostly good for presentations and question and answer. I’m sometimes not quite as attentive to a zoom presentation as I am real life though. The presenter often seems more dry than usual, so I guess that is similar to boring. I have attended some fantastic zoom meetings though that I never would have had a chance to see without covid and zoom. My dad joins also quite often, which is really nice to be able to do things with him even more than before zoom.

My experience is the talkative people are still talkative and the quiet people are still quiet, and I haven’t observed an over exaggeration of either personality on zoom compared to real life.

Today I have my mystery lovers club, the topic is the author Janet Evanovich. I rarely read a mystery or any books, but this club presents the author, and I find the lives of people very interesting, and the presenter is either very interested in the author or it is the author themselves, and they come across on zoom very well. Before it starts the club members say hi to each other and chat a little, find out where people are. It’s nice. I “meet“ more people in the “room” than I would in a real life setting and I don’t find that boring at all.

I think it depends on the organization and the people and how comfortable they are Zooming. My faith congregation has done a wonderful job with weekly coffee hours in which we break up into small groups with a discussion question for half the time. We are directed to each speak for about two minutes in turn so that everyone can speak. I have have had small committee meetings from the congregation that have worked fine and last night had a meeting with two committee members and friends to plan a program we are doing that was effective and like a real visit. I believe the more you do it the more comfortable it becomes as a medium but also it helps if there is a facilitator who can move things along and also set some ground rules. One thing that helps in a large group is if people mute themselves when others are talking so there is no talking over. And a plus of the Zoom coffee hour is that we are randomly assigned to the groups so that we are meeting and interacting with different people whom we may not have met.

On Thanksgiving, I spearheaded a family Zoom which got a little wild at times but my cousin said afterwards that I had been a very effective facilitator.

My team is definately quiet. Often its just the group leader speaking, unless we have an issue.

I’m still a fan of direct emails instead of conf calls myself.

I think people are more boring on Zoom than they are in person because Zoom is two dimensional, whereas real life is three dimensional.

That said, I would love it if Zoom could continue for work meetings, in lieu of meetings where people drive from all over to sit around a conference table and eat lunch (to be the person ordering lunch for a crowd can be stressful, when everyone wants something different). That means mileage and food costs for the company, and inconvenience for the attendees.