How Tall People Actually Are
And other surprising things about moving from Zoom to the real world
In March 2020, video conferencing became my new reality overnight. Colleagues that were once full-fledged, living and breathing organisms snuck their way into laptop screens, appearing in their full pixelated glory with kids and partners and plants in tow.
We showed up for each other, day after two-dimensional day, talking and talking and talking, deciding, deliberating, asking can you hear me alright, and are you on mute and Oh, what part of New York?
But then a vaccine arrived in January (thank god we suck at predicting things), and the US started skiing down the bunny slope of case counts and death rates. We’re now at an important juncture where many Americans are being pulled out of the inertia of sweatpant-Zooms back into the three-dimensional world of co-working.
Although my employer has yet to announce in-person office plans, I’ve started having in-person meetings with colleagues I’ve only met through my screen. And boy, has it been a trip.
Here are the things I found bizarre when meeting people IRL.
Height
It’s hard to tell how tall people are on Zoom. Our brains extrapolate a person’s full avatar-based only on a pair…
