Zoom and the equalisation of ideas

Robert Tyler | 14th June 2021 | Uncategorised

How politicians and videoconferencing have made the world smaller

When it comes to neologisms that have entered common usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, none are quite so enjoyable to say as the verb ‘zoom’. Every time I see someone write in an email that they’ll ‘zoom’ me – I can’t help but imagine them saying it in the way that a toddler might whilst playing with a toy car. And yet there is no doubt that Zoom has become one of the runaway success stories of people’s adaptation to the new normal of pandemic life. So much so that we are reaching a point where we take the ability to use video conferencing for granted. Suddenly, dialling in a conference speaker from the United States and Europe at the same time doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. Of course, all of this existed long before the pandemic, and calling transatlantic is a fairly trivial exercise, but there is something about knowing that, from Brussels to Boston, we’re all in the same boat. It has allowed us to become more connected than ever before – especially in the way we conduc...

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