I used to detest the “keep your video on” dictum often thrown during Zoom meets four years back. It left a bad taste. You may feel my anguish and contempt for mass Zoom meetings in WFH: How much worth from home? article that I penned down two weeks into covid lockdown.
Also, do people still keep their mic unmute in large Zoom meets?
Thanks to different opportunities, I could make some career adjustments without having to join a Zoom meeting for the sake of it—and not in a mass of 5+ people. This new phase of unforced Zoom meetings took away my resistance of showing my face on video! Because if I don’t show my face, how would I be able to hold a dialogue with the 2-3 people I might be on the call with? Out of a few work practices, I wanted to share one of the easiest ones to implement: Hiding self-view in Zoom app
What is self-view?
Self-view is our own video feed that we see on the Zoom screen. By default, Zoom shows us our live webcam feed on our screen. As if we are in a meeting with our clone too! Zoom has the facility to hide it.
But why should we hide the self-view?
For better, heart-to-heart communication. I’m not going to go into the other benefits of saving screen real-estate, rendering compute and all. Because my interest has been in improving the quality of the communication. When we hide the self-view, we can pay attention to the other people in the meeting. Especially, if you’re having a one-on-one meeting.
Look at this GIF from Jimmy Falon’s show:
Doesn’t this feel more immersive?​ You can try and see if you want to adopt this practice by following either of the following methods.
Method-1 to hide the self-view in Zoom
By choosing this method, all of your Zoom calls will have self-view hidden. You don’t have to do anything for each meeting. ​Step-1​ On your PC, go to Zoom settings by clicking on your profile photo. This window will open. You need to click on the “Video” tab.
Step-2​ Scroll down the settings on the right-hand side, until you reach the “Hide self-view” option.
Check it and you’re done! If you change your mind about any specific meeting, you can follow method-2 to switch back and forth. Let’s see how to do that.
Method-2 to hide self-view in Zoom
This easiest method, but it doesn’t set a default for all of the meetings. So, I don’t prefer this one. Once you have joined the meeting, you can navigate to the “View” menu generally located on the top right-hand side corner. You will find the “Hide self-view” option. Just click it.
That’s it! I hope you get to try it and share your experience later. Especially in a small group, the communication occurs heart-to-heart. My suspicion is that due to the lack of self-view, we are able to pay attention to others. And of course, we become less of a digital Narcissus.
Do you already use this feature? When did you decide to go for it? OR are there any other practices that you find helpful for Zoom meetings? ​Hit Reply and tell me about it.
Reads of the week:
​Link​ I have been reading Derek Guy’s ridiculously long threads and articles for some time now. Derek’s taste in male clothing is striking. The core concepts of male clothing laid out by him in his writing and exhaustive sample photographs make you wonder where was he all these years!? For all the female readers, I’m yet to find a female Derek, but reading him won’t be a waste of your time. I promise.
​Link​ As we learn more, we find more and realize how much we don’t know. One of the things that I’m currently learning is called TDD (Test-driven Development). That’s a software development practice. When I came across this practice, I found it ridiculous (oh, I used the word again!). Tests are useful, but Test-driven development is not my style. I didn’t know companies hire dedicated testers for exploratory testing. Read this interesting one by David. If you’re interested in the TDD debate, this one is my next read, again by David: TDD is dead. Long live testing.​