There is no doubt that the lockdowns of 2020 which have brought an explosion of video calls as we've all being isolated in our homes has accelerated our worldwide transition away from face to face interaction. While it is convenient in many ways, the impact it will have on our brains will be profound. For some, particularly those on the spectrum, this new way of communicating may help level the playing field as social signals become less useful or meaningful via video. For those, who rely on non-verbal communication and are highly attuned to body language and social signals, this new way of communicating creates new challenges and they may feel like they need to work harder than before to really understand what others are communicating.
While essential for staying in touch, working from home and online schools, video lacks spontaneity and interaction between people that are not talking. There are no side conversations or knowing looks. So communications will need to become lower context and new feedback mechanisms developed. Our brains will adapt to this, we may become less tuned to people's social signals and more explicit and visual forms of communications will be required. For people on the spectrum, this may bring surprising benefits as their preferred form of communication will become the norm.
It has been wonderful to connect at home with my husband and children, spending more time playing with them, but I miss engaging with people and the different emotions that arise throughout the day from those informal bits of social interaction. The coffee shop that knows my order, the thank you to the person who offered me a seat, the laugh by the water cooler and the familiarity of the people at the gym. The people we now meet with online are more targeted, specific, there is a reason we are on video... the world may become more transactional.
This lockdown is very much about contrasts: the tragedy of lives lost vs. the beauty and breadth of nature; the economic free-fall vs. the simplicity of less consumerism; isolation vs. more social/video platforms; the desperate, exhaustion of healthcare workers vs. unemployment.
Its history in the making and I hope that this gives us the opportunity to rebuild a better world.
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