We Live in Zoom Now

Today's blog post is from an article in The New York Times.

On Sunday afternoon, Eleanor Dolan celebrated her 17th birthday in Minnesota with 20 of her closest friends. They listened to pop music and traded jokes. When the group broke out into “Happy Birthday to You,” Eleanor pulled a slice of cookie cheesecake close in front of her and pretended to blow out the toothpick she had substituted for a candle on top. 

Then, she blew lightly on her computer screen. Miles away, her friends extinguished candles atop baked goods in front of them. The party was taking place over Zoom, a video calling app. Eleanor’s father briefly popped into her screen to take a photo. 

Teenagers have jokingly referred to themselves as “Zoomers” online for years; now the name is literal. Overnight, Zoom has become a primary social platform for millions of people, a lot of them high school and college students, as those institutions move to online learning.

Using Zoom is turning into a way of life during these times. But what is Zoom?

Zoom Video Communications is a videoconferencing company in San Jose, Calif., that has been thrust into the spotlight over the past week. On Monday morning, its iOS app became the top free download in Apple’s App Store.

On Sunday, nearly 600,000 people downloaded the app, its biggest day ever, according to Apptopia, which tracks mobile apps. While the stock market crashes, Zoom shares have soared this year, valuing the company at $29 billion — more than airlines like Delta, American Airlines or United Airlines.

Zoom allows you to hold meetings (and apparently parties) by video teleconference.

But why Zoom? Why not Skype, which has been around since 2003? Or Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger or Apple’s FaceTime? They’ve all had a boost recently. 

Marco Polo, a video chat app, saw sign-ups increase nearly threefold last week over the previous week, the company said. 

Zoom is baked into many colleges and schools already that use it. The product’s layout makes it easy to talk with multiple people at once. And Zoom has some features that mirror social media apps. A button called Touch Up My Appearance casts a soft focus over the video display, smoothing out the skin tone of the presenter like an Instagram filter. Custom backdrops can hide messy bedrooms. 

Zoom has a “hotter brand” association,said Rishi Jaluria, a senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson. “Younger people don’t want to use the older technology.”

People also pick Zoom because it works. Paul Condra, a technology analyst at PitchBook, said Zoom’s reliability and simplicity has made it the “standard” in videoconferencing software.

I've been on quite a few Zoom meetings. And it can integrate with Facebook Live. Jordan Adler, for one, uses Zoom with his Facebook Lives. And I've hosted two Zoom meetings, so far.

Last Friday, our new Gold Star club held its meeting via Zoom. I wrote about the club here.

If you want to join us, let me know. I'll get you the link for the Zoom meeting and the password. You can attend for free twice. And like I said in the blog post linked above, you can join our chapter at a special price of only $99 and that covers the first month's dues also.

Interesting days

Today - Chocolate Covered Raisins Day, Flatmate’s Day and Tuberculosis Day

Tomorrow - Waffle Day, Tolkien Reading Day, Manatee Appreciation Day and Pecan Day

Next Tuesday - Crayola Crayon Day, World Backup Day, Eiffel Tower Day, Bunsen Burner Day and International Transgender Day of Visibility

April 24 - Teach Your Children to Save Day, Hairball Awareness Day, Pig In A Blanket Day and Firefly Day

Week long celebrations:

April 20 - April 26: Stationery Week