Relatable Zoom Mishaps

Whether for school, work, even for club meetings, there’s a good chance you’ve been spending a little longer than you would have liked on the now ubiquitous video conferencing platform.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who’s talking), the monotony of Zoom has been interrupted by awkward, and often entertaining, moments of hilarity that we can all relate to on some level.

1. When the presenter forgets to unmute themselves after listening to an attendee.

Usually, one brave soul in the discussion will venture to let the presenter know that they’re on mute.

2. When you hear someone (be it a parent, roommate, pet, or sibling) howling in the background.

Bonus points if it’s something along the lines of, “Stop leaving your dirty socks lying around!”

3. When someone accidentally unmutes themselves…when they’re doing something they’re not supposed to be doing, and EVERYONE knows, and there’s a collage of muted laughter.

Once, in the middle of a passionate class discussion about feminism and women’s rights, one of my classmates accidentally unmuted himself and revealed he was playing a computer game and struggling with it.

4. When someone Zoom bombs the call.

Supposedly, new security measures by Zoom have sought to prevent such occurrences from happening. I’ve never had any of my meetings Zoom bombed. Still, I heard of this one sad story about a man whose thesis defense or dissertation was rudely interrupted by an unexpected visitor.

5. When the person who’s talking freezes mid-speech and the spinning wheel of lousy Internet connection captures them amid an interesting facial expression.

What can I say? The Internet is either our best friend or worst foe.

6. When someone accidentally brings their device into the bathroom with the video on and unmuted.

Just leave your device in the other room if you have to go and be quick. You probably won’t miss anything too important.

7. When someone gets up in the middle of a Zoom call and forgets they had only dressed to impress on the top.

Pro-tip: If you have to stand up and you’re wearing not the most appropriate bottoms, turn the camera off. Or better yet, put some pants on. Again, never seen this personally, but apparently, some news anchors had a few wardrobe issues at the beginning of shelter-in-place.

8. The effort required for audio-only Zooms compared to the effort required for video and audio Zooms.

Even with video Zoom calls, the only thing anyone really sees is shoulders and up for the most part. Let’s be honest, most of us, if we can, have probably been wearing sweatpants for months by now.

9. When someone picks the wrong (dare I say, interesting?) virtual Zoom background for the wrong occasion. Oops.

I hope that this helped bring some brightness into a day full of Zoom meetings. If you can, try and take mini screen time breaks. It feels like shelter-in-place has been going on for so long, but remember to continue following all COVID-19 safety protocols for the safety of all.

Hopefully, we can Zoom forward to the days of less screen time 😉

Thumbnail photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash