If it was so good ..
We'd all save money by buying a few cans of beer at the supermarket and meeting up in a virtual pub at home rather than going to a physical location and paying 5 times the price for a pint. Online teaching would be as good as the classroom and there'd be no talk whatsoever of re-opening schools. And a sun-lamp and large-screen TV showing a tropical beach would be every bit as satisfying as a foreign holiday.
No, personal interaction involves so much more than audio and video. It's about fleeting person-to-person glances, body language that doesn't work on a Zoom meeting. The ability to ask a quick question while working and getting a reply that saves 15 minutes had you had to look up the answer yourself. The ability to see whether the other person is interruptable or engrossed in something. Snatches of converstation about personal things or a bit of banter that are irrelevant to work but so important in bonding co-workers to create a spirit of cooperation. The atmosphere you get in a room full of people is simply impossible to duplicate in a screen full of people engaged in video-conferencing. Maybe there are even pheremones at play when people are in proximity.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
