Ent er ing t he Toddl er St age
of Onl ine Meet ings
By Luke V.
Right now, with everything going on in
the world, our social interactions are shifting
from the physical to the digital. Most of us
weren?t prepared to tackle all the new tech.
This is the time I refer to as ?The Toddler
Stage?. This is the stage in development when
one of three things happens.
One, the application is pushed to its
limits. This happens when thousands of
people start using the servers. The servers
overload causing a reduction in application
quality for everyone.
Two, the people using the software do
not understand how to use the platform. This
will happen when the system?s UI (user
interface) is too complicated, so, when you
need to fix a problem, you can instead make it
worse accidentally.
Three is all of the above when the
application is pushed to its limits and the
users don?t understand how to use the app.
This either results in a mess of anger and
difficulty, or the users find a way (or are given
a way by perfect circumstances) to make light
of the situation and turn their situation into a
great time. That is the toddler stage.
So, I predict that you?ll ask in which
stage we are with online meeting software.
Well, as of the time of this article being
released, we?ll probably be out of the toddler
stage (or near out of it). After surveying
several people, on average people are
attending about three to five meetings a week.
Now, just for the US, the population is
about 300 million. Again, let?s say only 200
million people are using online meetings;
that?s 700 million meetings a week, or just
over 100 million meetings a day.
As of March 2020, according to Owl
Labs in an article titled "Everything You Need
to Know About Using Zoom," Zoom has added
22 million new users so far this year. With the
100 million meetings a week and 22 million
new users on zoom alone, the application is
still not pushed to its limits. Even though there
are many meetings being hosted, the people
attending those meetings may not know how
to use the software, causing this to be two.
AOA uses Blackboard Collaborate for
student meetings, so some tips to remember
when joining a meeting are: you can turn the
sound for chat pings off; if you have audio
issues, try switching your browser to Chrome;
make sure you enter your full name when
joining meetings; test your connection before
joining a meeting; finally, make sure to join
the meeting on time.
But the thing to remember about the
toddler stage (like actual toddlers) is that it
may be annoying or difficult, but remember to
cherish the hilarity, cuteness, and mess-ups of
the situation, because it can be over at any
time, and you can never go back to appreciate
it.
Current Events 7