This Flashback Friday from 1970 is a promotional video from AT&T introducing their new "Picturephone Service." The devices are clunky, and the picture quality is horrible. But what's fascinating is that they pretty much nailed how we're using Zoom right now. Boring business meetings, family gatherings, and guys apologizing to their girlfriends for being late. Some things never change, they're just in HD now.
A scientist at Stanford University has a new theory why Zoom calls feel so EXHAUSTING. Basically, it's because they're too intimate, so they're triggering the parts of our brain that make us want to either FIGHT or MATE. And that's stressful.
"On Zoom, behavior ordinarily reserved for close relationships, such as long stretches of direct eye gaze and faces seen close up, has suddenly become the way we interact with casual acquaintances, coworkers, and even strangers."