Before this year, Zoom was a useful tool for business meetings. But ever since we have been quarantined, zooming has taken on a whole different meaning and function. “To zoom” has become an action verb.

We have become a culture of zooming.

While, we’re quarantined, we go to Zoom concerts and plays. We attend lectures on Zoom. We hold religious services over Zoom. We have doctor appointments on Zoom (though, so far, this hasn’t worked with dentists or hair stylists).

We get together to talk with friends and relatives on Zoom (or Skype or FaceTime). This is the only way we can “visit” with people we care about. We can even have international visits over Zoom—which is remarkable.

We even have dinner parties on Zoom—which has certain advantages: no extra cooking and no need to straighten or clean the house.

Zooming gives us a special view of our friends and colleagues. A party, meeting or any kind of event is a grid. We look like we’re on the old TV show Hollywood Squares.

On Zoom, we are disembodied heads, sometimes with shoulders. No one has a body.

The host has control and you don’t. You can’t enter unless he or she invites you and then lets you into the event. The host decides if you can speak. The host can mute you–even if you have something interesting to say.

Also, if your device–computer, ipad or iphone–is below eye-level, your fellow zoomers get to look up into your giant nostrils.

Zooming isn’t perfect. Light travels faster than sound—so our mouths are not synced with our voices. Music is a problem—voices and instruments are out of sync and cacophonic.

Sometimes WiFi waffles and some or all of us get disconnected. And there are frequent snippets of conversations that float off into space.

There are reports of worse problems—hacking by evil people, which is too bad. I hope that our quarantine ends soon. But if it doesn’t, we will continue to Zoom. With all its limitations, Zoom is a blessing in these difficult times. I’m grateful.