Muted

Isn’t it kinda strange that we mute ourselves over Zoom during group conversations? I’m not talking about lectures or presentations, I’m talking open-form, group conversation. Do people not trust themselves not to interrupt that much? But we typically have no problem with that in in-person settings. I feel like in Zoom culture the self-mute has become more of a way to indicate that you have nothing to say or that you have no intention of saying anything or to justify awkward silence, even though we tell ourselves that we do it out of “respect” for whoever is speaking at the time.

Sure I understand muting if you got a bunch of background noise or if you don’t want to broadcast your chewing or gulping or typing sounds, but personally if I am speaking its kinda nice to get “verbal” feedback (/affirmative sounds) from the people I’m talking to or at least see that the potential is there.