The Zoom Meeting Grid Pales to the The Brady Bunch Grid

I grow weary of the limitations.

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

Remember the opening credits of the Brady Bunch television show from the 1960s and 70s? Remind you of anything?

In 1969 we landed on the moon with computing technology that pales compared to the phones we now carry in our pockets. Likewise, the Brady Bunch grid is still miles ahead of the one that many of us find ourselves in for the past year. Here are my arguments.

1. Brady grid is static. We always know who is where. Alice is always in the middle, dad at the top, mom on the bottom. I’ll stop there with all that positioning. My point is that in Zoom meetings we keep getting shuffled around. Usually the speaker is illuminated, or even made the main screen, but all it takes is for someone to open a bag of chips or pass gas and we’re suddenly seeing something totally out of context for what we’re hearing.
2. Bradys can somehow see into each others squares. I try my best, when speaking during a Zoom meeting, to look at the camera so that everyone in the meeting has the impression that I’m making proper eye contact with them. It’s not easy, because I want guage the reaction of my audience. As challenging as this is, it’s actually easier than trying to show eye contact when the other person is speaking. Where am I supposed to look? If I look at the…