Into the evening, I met online with a group of friends who I met online 25 years ago. We consider each other family, since we are so close. I've met the majority of them in person. Tonight I got to see and hear each of them -- with two of the eight being heard by me for the first time. We used a new-to-me platform -- Zoom. It worked so well. I gasped a bit and smiled when I first saw all their faces on my screen. It made things more real. This is miles ahead of the IRC chats we did 20 years ago. Each brought us together but seeing facial expressions and hearing voices and inflection -- without extensive use of emojis or the ascii form of these we used eons ago. <grin> e.g., C=|:^) -- me in a chef's hat. <bigger grin>. This group chat brought joy along with reassurance that we are all OK at this time, which in turn brought a sense of calm.
I had used this newer software platform once before when doing an interview as a subject for a research project. Classes at the university have this available for the to hold smaller classes and office hours and such over the next two weeks. So, the name of the software has been in many electronic and personal communications over the past few weeks. When thinking through the fun aspect of the group chat, and the many new users from post-secondary education, a song popped into my head. It made me laugh. Hope it can bring a smile to you today, too. Enjoy!
Whose Zoomin' Who -- Aretha Franklin
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