not for love or money
Apr. 2nd, 2020 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleI don't like video-conferencing, but I've started using it lately even though it tends to make me motion-sick. I miss my congregation* more than I expected, and when they gather on Zoom** I can join them or...not. One of my comrades did something weird on Friday, making it look like she was calling from a lake in full daylight instead of from her crowded little apartment near sunset. Oh, how cool! So, yesterday, somebody passed around a video about how to use a "virtual background" with zoom.
The guy making the video was really worried about looking what he called "unprofessional" while using zoom, and assumed his viewers would be too. I understand that people video conference for different reasons, often with people they don't want to lounge on the couch with. (Please do not lounge on the couch while holding your laptop and video conferencing with me. Please please please put your computer on a table so it holds STILL.) But his ideas about looking unprofessional are awfully different from mine. I do very little online tutoring, in part because I'm terrible at it and in part because it hurts my hand as well as making me motion-sick and triggering migraines, but I've thought about looking professional while doing it.
Yeah, I know the code where "professional" means "respectable." I've heard it so many thousands of times it's soaked in, even though I don't approve of it. I think an unmade bed in the background, or an open door to the bathroom, can be inappropriate...but that's why we have the blanket hastily thrown over the bed, and the closed bathroom door. When I see somebody sitting at their dining room table with coffee cup beside them and a big bookcase behind them, I don't see how they could project a more admirable image. When it's shown as a problem to be solved, and it would look better to look like you're speaking in a big conference room with very modern glass-and-metal furniture...clearly we have different values.
*I'm not sure we're organized enough to be a synagogue, but we sure do congregate.
**I'm never sure if I should sing "Send it to ZOOM! z double-o m...02134!" when the app opens, or if I should correct it to oh, two, one, FOUR, four. Some of you may understand.
The guy making the video was really worried about looking what he called "unprofessional" while using zoom, and assumed his viewers would be too. I understand that people video conference for different reasons, often with people they don't want to lounge on the couch with. (Please do not lounge on the couch while holding your laptop and video conferencing with me. Please please please put your computer on a table so it holds STILL.) But his ideas about looking unprofessional are awfully different from mine. I do very little online tutoring, in part because I'm terrible at it and in part because it hurts my hand as well as making me motion-sick and triggering migraines, but I've thought about looking professional while doing it.
Yeah, I know the code where "professional" means "respectable." I've heard it so many thousands of times it's soaked in, even though I don't approve of it. I think an unmade bed in the background, or an open door to the bathroom, can be inappropriate...but that's why we have the blanket hastily thrown over the bed, and the closed bathroom door. When I see somebody sitting at their dining room table with coffee cup beside them and a big bookcase behind them, I don't see how they could project a more admirable image. When it's shown as a problem to be solved, and it would look better to look like you're speaking in a big conference room with very modern glass-and-metal furniture...clearly we have different values.
*I'm not sure we're organized enough to be a synagogue, but we sure do congregate.
**I'm never sure if I should sing "Send it to ZOOM! z double-o m...02134!" when the app opens, or if I should correct it to oh, two, one, FOUR, four. Some of you may understand.
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Date: 2020-04-02 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-03 05:46 pm (UTC)If I was in a situation where I was really concerned about the look of my residence, I think I'd be more likely to go with a uniform color as backdrop.
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Date: 2020-04-03 07:23 pm (UTC)ETA: Thanks for helping me label it. I think it's kind of pathetic, but he's far from the only person who thinks that way.
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Date: 2020-04-03 08:39 pm (UTC)I think my own reactions to class markers are idiosyncratic of the scholars' caste. Scholars are economically middle class but display some upper class markers, including security in *not needing* to make affectations of wealth. My own ingrained values prize authenticity pretty highly. Like, I can appreciate the idea of a finely tailored silk Italian suit, even if I might not be able to *recognize* one, but have an automatic distaste for the idea of a cheap polyester suit that is supposed to look like something much finer. Maybe that is the sticking point for me.
And I'm also well aware that there's a lot of "up" to the social ladder that is higher than a news anchor.