For those interested in history, Zoom was originally founded in 2011 but its origins go back to the 1990s, when Eric Yuan when studying at Shandong University of Science and Technology in China, wanted to find an easier way to see his now-wife. In 1997, he worked at a videoconferencing startup for 14 years before leaving to start his own company.
Right now, Zoom is one of the most widely spread proprietary videotelephony software programs used in school, business and for private purposes.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses and people had to find a method to operate remotely as lockdowns forced offices to close around the world. That’s when Zoom became the pandemic’s success story. According to Wired, at the end of April 2020, the calling service announced total revenue of $328.2 million, a 169 percent increase from the same period the previous year.
After the restrictions were lifted, Zoom calls still remain a popular practice, being chosen over life meetings by some. However, the question remains whether our love for this video technology will dissolve in the future now that we can go back to our offices.
Obviously, while participating in conferences from the comfort of our homes, we tend to act differently. There’s no need to look presentable (if you don’t have your camera on) and you can do some side jobs at the same time (if you’re good at multitasking, of course). However, as we can see from these tweets, it happens that we let our guard down a little too much sometimes and allow some embarrassing things to slip out. Do you have some cringe-worthy Zoom fails to share?
Interestingly, observations of remote meetings revealed that using video calls significantly helps team members and the team leader to establish stronger relational bonds. It is partly because video meetings allow participants to be more engaged in group discussions, to express their thoughts and opinions more freely and to resolve disagreements more quickly.
On the other hand, video conferencing is not for all, causing feelings of anxiety and exposure for some. According to the successful video communication report presented by Pearn Kandola, this stems from “a lack of familiarity or awareness in using the technology solutions effectively.”
