On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 03:43:30PM -0700, Michael Dexter wrote: > What are your thoughts on virtual or substitute activities?
A high level of forbearance will be required, because social cues will be absent, and many of us are socially inept even with F2F interactions. I'm a remote member of a bay area futurist group whose monthly meetings I attend in person perhaps three times per decade. They moved to an online format for COVID, which allowed me to "e-meet" without the familiarity that accumulates over years and dozens of interactions. Online, I made a hypothetical comment including "you would" (which should have been phrased as "one would"), which was interpreted by the just-prior-speaker as a disparaging personal comment, leading to brief upset. Fortunately, we resolved that quickly, no permanent harm done, with the just-prior-speaker laughing the most at the trap we had just escaped. After which, I S.T.F.U. Lesson learned: In a F2F situation, listener facial expression changes would have restructured my hypothetical comment on the fly; perhaps none of us would have noticed. Online, in a user group with a high proportion of Asperger and social-isolate personalities, Things Could Get Bad. A PLUG E-meeting might work out well given an experienced neurotypical moderator able to call an immediate "TIME OUT" just after an easily misconstrued phrase or example. John Jordan, who understands language pitfalls better than most, would be my candidate for this role. However, given our wide range of psychologies and sensitivities, it might be too much for even an experienced professional moderator. When choosing an online venue, consider how the design of a particular venue might amplify or minimize this kind of problem. The online venue should be platform-general, no windoze/android requirements, no audio/visual gingerbread or animated distractions from the speaker. Personally, given my hearing and temperament problems, I probably won't participate; I prefer isolation to being an irritant. When life returns to normal after the COVID crisis, I hope PLUG will not be permanently fractured by online-media-caused feuds and hurt feelings. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
