Just Zoom It
By Chaya Nessa Krycer, Featured Writer, DOJLife.com
There’s a software company out there in the abyss of the internet which the whole world seems to be leaning on. Without it, it’s very possible the universe would slowly disintegrate, and after one final breath, be heard from no more. Of course what I am referring to is Zoom.
Ironically, if you had said to me just three months ago, “Why don’t we use Zoom for that?”, I would have given you the blankest expression in my capability. The one you use for those people that say with unfathomable confidence as if they just solved the world’s problems, “If you move the deer crossing signs, the deer will cross somewhere else.” But now our existence could not possibly endure without the aid of Zoom. In fact, I predict that one day in the distant future (in about one month from now) people will turn Zoom into a verb, as in “I can’t drive in for the meeting. Can we just zoom it?” (Now I don’t know about you, but the pre-corona side of my brain just had an image of someone zooming in on an electric hoverboard. Weird things minds can do.)
But Zoom has this crazy power of connecting everyone everywhere, for free. You can even have multiple people on a Zoom call at once. It’s unlike any other video calling software, except for WhatsApp, Duo, Skype (remember Skype?) Face Time, Hangouts, etc. And now we all have just realized that Zoom is the same old thing we’ve been using for the past fifteen years but under a new name. So why is Zoom so popular? Why is it the superman of the coronavirus outbreak, the sole reason our brains have not turned to mush from the lack of education? I pondered for days and weeks over this baffling conundrum. (Well, not quite).
After some research, I found what is most likely the number one reason why Zoom is the leading video communication software program for us all.
It’s easy.
That is the essential motivation for using Zoom over any other software program. All you need to do is click on a link, or type in a long string of meaningless numbers, and you’re in.
But there must be something Zoom is disliked for, something we can throw in their smug, successful faces? Luckily for you, there is.
It’s this; they’re too easy.
Now I don’t know about you, but it’s these paradoxical twists in life that make me happy inside, perhaps because it proves to me that I’m not the only crazy one in the world, look at Zoom! Their most outstanding and most useless quality is the same element! You see, the problem with being too accessible is that although Zoom is brilliant and computers are already taking over the human mind, body, and soul, it still cannot distinguish between someone you have invited to your meeting and someone you purposely did not invite.
To be perfectly honest, my friends and I joked about playing ‘Zoom Roulette’ where we can join any random meeting of our choosing. How fun would it be to pop into a random Bais Yaakov in New York for Chumash, and then state by state visit all your friends’ classes for the rest of the day? The problem with that is that this can be distracting for the teacher, and in some instances dangerous. Perhaps my friends joining my Navi class wouldn’t cause permanent damage, but if total strangers were to do it (otherwise known as Zoombombing)? In my school, each of us has our full names plastered over our picture. I wouldn’t want a random psychopath finding out what I look like and which room in the house I study in.
Of course, I’m not trying to slander Zoom with disparaging insinuations. After all, they’ve been doing all they can to solve this problem, by adding passwords to each Zoom meeting. I just want to point out, that sometimes in this day and age where effortless is the highest form of praise, a little added complications may be a good thing. Although you may find it inconvenient to type in a security question, or memorize a password, almost always it’s to your benefit.
And once you’re password-protected, why not Zoom it?
