What are we feeling when we talk to others? (Online meetings)

Something to say

Online meetings have become completely established in the world, haven't they?
They have also progressed quite a bit in my own workplace, and are held from time to time. It's a strange feeling to join a meeting from your own desk as if you were making a phone call, isn't it?

At first, I had trouble with the controls, but once you get used to it, it's no big deal; we really live in a convenient world.

While online meetings are convenient and perfectly fine for exchanging information, I often hear people say that face-to-face meetings are still better.

“It's easier to have honest discussions in person”

That is certainly true, and I understand what they mean.
Even though I find it convenient, I also feel that it has become lighter in terms of communication.
I still feel that face-to-face meetings convey the other person's atmosphere better, making it easier to time my comments and engage in discussions.

Feeling lighter also means that some kind of burden has been reduced, so there must be some good aspects to it...
I'm sure that people like me who feel a lightness in online meetings are usually communicating by capturing a wider variety of information as a whole beyond just facial expressions and voices when talking to others.
Since not all of the information I usually capture is conveyed, it must feel lighter.

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Actually, this feeling of lightness is something I also felt long ago when email was becoming common.
At that time, if it was a department in the same building, contacting someone meant calling them or going there to talk in person.
In that environment, email was introduced, and we started sending messages by email, but it felt light, so after sending an email, I would go out of my way to call them and say, “I sent you an email.”

Thinking about it now, it feels like, what was the point of the email! But there was definitely a sense of hesitation about relying solely on email.

Recently, that feeling has diminished, but it feels like it took about 10 years for that change in lightness to happen.

Well, sometimes internet news articles carry voices of anger about people using email to report absences from part-time jobs or to submit resignations, so it seems there are still various feelings regarding the lightness of email.

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However, if I change my perspective, I think that someone like me who feels a lightness in online meeting communication might just be, in a sense, not used to receiving information from an online screen.

Since online classes are being held during the COVID-19 pandemic, people who grew up in an environment where online communication is normal might be able to see and grasp the necessary information appropriately even online.
(There was talk about online drinking parties being fun, but I wonder if they are still held frequently now.)

However, on the other hand, for those who have become accustomed to online communication, I also worry about what will happen if meeting in person becomes burdensome...

Meeting in person is a burden!

Well, even if I worry that it would be a disaster if that happened, by that time, the very nature of communication itself might have changed.

For now, I would like to gain more experience and improve my online communication skills. 😅

Somehow, thinking about the differences in how we perceive things made me want to listen to Aimyon.

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