Zoom backgrounds help us stay connected to the world and each other, while allowing us to hide a bit of whatever anxiety might accompany video chatting from home. A custom Zoom background protects us from that unwitting reveal and shifts the focus to the background of our choice, especially if it’s particularly eye-catching, clever, or witty. We’ve all become aware that our living rooms and bedrooms might betray too much - and that the people we’re chatting with might be searching our surroundings for secrets. Today, those glimpses are an intimacy the pandemic has forced us to share. (An unspoken element of work-from-home video chats, for those who’ve experienced them in the past, has always been the judgments we make of our colleagues’ daily lives, based on the glimpses we get into their personal spaces.

FUCK YEAH MY FAVOURITE PART OF THIS WEIRD NEW REALITY IS SEEING INTO STRANGERS’ HOUSES DURING ZOOM MEETINGS AND CLASSES AND JUDGING THEIR CHOICES AND LOOKING OUT FOR PETS- Nadine von Cohen April 8, 2020

Virtual background zoom meme