Almost incomprehensible to me is the emergence and reliance of online interface during our home-stay, now nearing nine months of 2020. My husband and I are wildly gregarious, so quarantine initially made us glum. We felt cut off from the world, outcasts in our own home.
Thank goodness for the Internet that humans may use for free.
Online opportunities have permeated 2020 culture and mediated the sting of the disease’s invasion. Here are some of the ways we’ve participated online to ease our daily needs:
- exercise
- converse with family and friends
- shop for clothing, books, and health/beauty products
- cultural opportunities and events
- church
- physician visits
- late-night comedians and movies
- NASA/SPACE-EX launches
Though we don’t need to work from home, this has become the mainstay of business. Google Chat and Zoom have greased the interface that most human beings crave. Physical presence isn’t necessary to share ideas and make decisions. Things move forward and most people are satisfied.
Zoom was a feeble means of communication in the early days. It was mildly offensive to me that most people stared at their computer monitor as if they were watching TV. No animation, no clear engagement, drab faces, and uncombed hair. The common joke was that most people didn’t wear pants… Not so in our home, though I did find Zoom an occasion for which I wore makeup, jewelry and fixed my hair.
My husband was glad about that!
While Zoom didn’t replace the physicality of hugs, my husband and I amped our opportunities to share hugs, kisses, and other signs of affection. It seems our marriage has benefited from home-stay. Our shared sense of humor helped us mediate the mad and sad moments that inevitably occur in marriage. We each sought to ease friction and fraction. Frick and Frack were banned!
The term ‘online’ used to be confined to European use, where to queue up was bad, suggestive of endless waits on cobblestone or concrete. Bad, very bad for our backs and the bane of our tourism there.
Recent Comments