You are cordially invited to this weekâs brew of High Tea, your dispatch of đĽ internet culture served piping hot. This week: GenZoom takeover and embracing shared humanity online .Â
Drink up. đ¸âď¸
what weâve been sipping on:
Zoom, the remote video conferencing service, just got its big break. Once a modern enterprise tool to collaborate across co-located and remote teams, Zoomâs user base just got significantly younger and way more creative. With COVID-19 rearing its ugly head forcing 18,700 U.S. schools to close at time of writing, the entire student body goes all âvirtual classroomâ and with that, provides hilarious Zoom memes and downright ingenious tactics to cheat the system.Â
Remember GDocs? These Zs donât play. Or, maybe they do. đ¸âď¸
We run through some of the hilarious Zoom-related hacks weâve seen online this week:Â
Green screen goals. Quite honestly â who knew. Since teens have hopped on the scene weâve seen more Zoom features come to light than we knew were possible. From a decked out palatial home to the aurora borealis, Zoomâs virtual background tool makes it possible to call in from virtually anywhere. If you can download it, you can be in it. This one goes out to all of you WFH couples fighting for the dining room table. PSA: the bed is now an option. Youâre welcome. đ¸âď¸
The Nodding Dog. Titled, âHow to look like youâre paying attention in your online classâ, this hack is by far one of the best doing the rounds on TikTok. Levelling up on the green screen, teens are now filming themselves nodding along at their comps, looping the content, and then adding it to their respective windows. Letâs get real, with 35 students in a class itâs hard for teachers to notice one of their students making similar affirmative movements every few minutes. What does this mean? Itâs back to bed, kids.
Barbie needs the link. After a week or two of âvirtual schoolâ, itâs clear the initial appeal is starting to wane. Some are even going so far as to giving up the pretence altogether, abandoning their video loops, and faux attendance tricks for...barbie? Yes, this week we saw the doll make her in-class debut much to the amusement of the rest of her peers (and the world) on TikTok.Â
With Zoom now an ed staple (move over Kahoot), it hasnât taken long for the meme lords and ladies to jump on the bandwagon to initiate the takeover. What does that look like, you ask? These are the initiatives we know for sure:Â
Berkeley California was at one point labelled a âzoom uniâ on wikipedia
zoom uni merch is already here
students create âmatch over zoomâ: a google sheet to match students for blind dates to help with the IRL separation.
zoom drinking games get everyone drunk.Â
For those of you with school days long behind you, here are some genius đ¸âď¸ approved social distancing ideas that we love:Â
BYOZ. Thatâs Bring Your Own Zoom, ofc. Turns out this pandemic has birthed a new word: on-nomi, thatâs online drinking in Japanese. Catch us inside in our jim jams and a face mask with that Zoom glow (h/t Bo Ren), toasting to better days. Who wants a High Tea happy hour? đ¸đ¸
Virtual Workouts. Hats off to those of you who took part in the Bath Half Marathon this morning. We hope youâre icing those ankles and enjoying a cold one, between power naps and pizza ofc. When organisers wouldnât step in and cancel the race, participants took it upon themselves to start a Strava running club and set up their own event. With only half the usual number of runners taking to the streets, it looks like it worked. Power to the people on this one, folks. đ
Long distance membership. What do you do when community can be a form of self-care in times of uncertainty? Take your cue from Audrey Gelman, CEO of The Wing. After peeping their first digital event: a conversation on periods and Estrogen. Gelman says: âweâll be going digital while we weather the storm from the comfort of our homes. This means weâll be keeping our community connected and thriving through our Groups feature, digital programming, and virtual meet-ups.â đ
Quarantine Book Club. When you canât tuck into your favorite page turner on the subway or gather over some cab sauv with your book club (donât ask us about the wine:book ratio), joining your favorite authors on Zoom is a pretty good place to start. We have to hand it to Quarantine Book Club for wasting no time in getting the ball rolling with this fantastic idea.Â
Back to basics. If all else fails, why not take a step back and enjoy the good old fashioned classics...like noughts and crosses...with your pet turtle. Anyone?Â
Stay safe out there. And donât forget to call your mom!Â
ttyl,