STUDY: Is Zoom Making Us Dumber?

[Brad Smith]

Found this very interesting. Going to meetings seemed much better than using Zoom - if you can get there - now I know why.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt9MTqrzOKU

 

 

[Witness1970]

I actually learned more about the members of my congregation during the Zoom meetings.  At the Hall, I might get to speak to a few of the attendees, but on Zoom, I was able to speak to everyone.  I learned more about the congregation because we were on Zoom.

 

On Zoom when I started doing breakout rooms people would stay and talk for several minutes after the meeting.  As soon as the KH meetings opened back up everyone on Zoom just says, 'Goodbye, have a good day' and they are gone.

[lord21]

Zoom has made publishers lazy.

[Witness1970]

My wife, Ann, and I usually never get sick.  This year on 2 separate occasions my wife went out door-to-door and one of the sisters had a cold.  My wife came home and got a cold.  It takes about 3 weeks for her to give it to me.  On these 2 occasions, my wife and I were sicker than we had been in about 2 decades prior to this.

 

The COBE also has an awful cold, but I don's think he has been out since getting sick.

[Tortuga]

On 11/24/2023 at 8:35 AM, lord21 said:

Zoom has made publishers lazy.

Perhaps. It's a tool and it is up to us as to how we use it. There have been many comments here from friends that need to use Zoom, it is a useful tool for them.

 

Perhaps there are some publishers that use it when they shouldn't. When you use the wrong tool for a job you do a poor job and make a poor product. Jehovah and Jesus will judge the finished product, we don't.

[Qapla]

It has been said that statistics is the science of making numbers say anything you want them to say - statistics can make number lie.

 

Illustration of this:

A survey is sent to 10 people asking them if they prefer "A" or "B" ... the results look like this - A A B A A B B B B B

 

So, it would seem that "B" is the clear winner since 6 out of 10 preferred "B" ... but, those same numbers can also prove "A" to be the winner since, looking at the first five responses, 4 out of 5 preferred "A"

 

The same can be said for many of the "studies" that are published YouTube and other places online. Think about it, the "scientific method" starts with a hypothesis and the study should either prove or disprove the hypothesis. However, in our day, it seems many subscribe to the idea that, once you have a hypothesis, you make your study prove your hypothesis - regardless of the actual results ... sometimes this means skewing the results of not doing follow-up studies that may have different results.

 

On 11/24/2023 at 11:35 AM, lord21 said:

Zoom has made publishers lazy.

 

The same could be said of the videos on JW.org as well as the simplified study aids we have gotten in recent times - I'm sure most of us would not agree with that conclusion.

 

[Lee49]

My last 2 live meetings I was highly distracted by bothers who had the shakey leg syndrome sitting in my direct view, one brother had it so bad he never stopped during the entire assembly, left leg shaking, right leg shaking, both legs shaking, left, right, left , right ! STOP ! I don't get that agravated at home watching and listening on zoom.

 

[MullumMiss]

I suppose it depends on what Zoom is used for.  For us and our meetings we can sit through the whole Zoom meeting and not say a word. Our congregation has a terrible Zoom experience.  Often the Zoom device isn’t working so those on Zoom cannot answer.  When I’ve needed Zoom due to sickness often there are issues for us with the sound etc.  So for us Zoom does make you dumber.  

[Mzbarb]

On 11/24/2023 at 11:35 AM, lord21 said:

Zoom has made publishers lazy.

In our congregation, zoom has definitely made quite a few healthy brothers and sisters lazy.

[Lee49]

21 minutes ago, Mzbarb said:

zoom has definitely made quite a few healthy brothers and sisters lazy.

We often listen to 2 meetings a week, both Wed. ( my son and daughters family ) and our mid week on Thur., plus    my wife will listen to 2 meetings on Sun. also while I attend to most of our meetings live, we get more out of the meetings that way.

[Miss Bea]

We reap what we sow. In other words, we get out of Zoom what we put into it.When we had to use Zoom, I made sure my husband knew I was still, “going to the meeting, or out in service.” And dressed properly for such. I prepared for the meeting like i was going to the hall. And, did my best to participate. 

Itʼs an effort, but well worth it. 
We may see changes in the future that we use the way Jehovah intends, or, “skate by”

I do not think any of us willʼ “skate”, onto the new system. 

[LeolaRootStew]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:45 AM, Witness1970 said:

I actually learned more about the members of my congregation during the Zoom meetings.  At the Hall, I might get to speak to a few of the attendees, but on Zoom, I was able to speak to everyone.  I learned more about the congregation because we were on Zoom.

 

On Zoom when I started doing breakout rooms people would stay and talk for several minutes after the meeting.  As soon as the KH meetings opened back up everyone on Zoom just says, 'Goodbye, have a good day' and they are gone.

This has been my exact experience. I moved to a new congregation and I've been listening to the meetings through the phone tie-in for years because of illness, so when we switched to Zoom I could suddenly SEE everyone and interact. I could listen and get to know everyone without feeling the need to participate all the time. I learned people's names (because they were labelled) and talked to a lot of people I wouldn't have had the chance to talk to in real life. It was also nice that I could leave the exact moment my sociability disintegrated. 

 

Now it's just hi and bye.

[Dolce vita]

57 minutes ago, LeolaRootStew said:

Cela a été exactement mon expérience. J'ai déménagé dans une nouvelle congrégation et j'écoute les réunions par téléphone depuis des années à cause d'une maladie. Ainsi, lorsque nous sommes passés à Zoom, j'ai pu soudainement VOIR tout le monde et interagir. Je pouvais écouter et connaître tout le monde sans ressentir le besoin de participer tout le temps. J'ai appris les noms des gens (parce qu'ils étaient étiquetés) et j'ai parlé à beaucoup de gens avec qui je n'aurais pas eu la chance de parler dans la vraie vie. C'était aussi bien de pouvoir partir au moment précis où ma sociabilité se désintégrait. 

 

Maintenant, c'est juste salut et au revoir.

😘😘😘

[Pabo]

On 11/27/2023 at 6:05 AM, MullumMiss said:

For us and our meetings we can sit through the whole Zoom meeting and not say a word. Our congregation has a terrible Zoom experience.  Often the Zoom device isn’t working so those on Zoom cannot answer.  When I’ve needed Zoom due to sickness often there are issues for us with the sound etc.  So for us Zoom does make you dumber.  

 

That is said to hear, but I have heard from other congregations nearby us that they at times have similar experience. Compared with those other congregations, some have genuine issues in getting a reasonable internet connection, where one KH had to go resort in going to satellite connection, whereas other KH's just have substandard landline internet speeds just because of where they are located. We recently had a LDC retraining day the other week, and the brother who was doing the "technical" side of the training which involved the sound desk was somewhat jealous of the upload speeds that we were getting, as many congregations that he had attended to was lucky to get a 2-4Mbps, where we were hitting 40-50Mbps. We are the only congregation that he had seen just using the 4G mobile connection, and he was surprised that were streaming in higher quality that he had seen in his travels.

 

We have large majority that may who use Zoom because of their varying circumstances due to age etc, but generally it is the MWM that has the higher attendance (between 20-35%) whereas weekend meeting it can be 5-20% on Zoom. But it is a blessing for our congregation, as many would have just missed the meetings, or they wouldn't have had the opportunity to give their comments or parts whilst attending the meeting on Zoom.

 

We have a new elder that just recently now moved into our congregation, and he is not yet fully adjusted to our Zoom setup when he conducts his parts from the platform. He really likes our setup and much better than he was used too, but it more of a habit on his part just to call on ones on Zoom for their comments. He said that with his previous congregation, mostly the comments were from the audience and those on Zoom rarely did put their hand up (they used a tablet with the participants list next to the lectern), thus he tends to just look at the audience. The congregation that he is from is nearly 2 1/2 times the size of ours and yet only about 50-60% attend the meetings at the KH. Whereas our Zoom attendees usually have a very good share in the comments, and at times we have had to promp this elder to look at the monitor on the ceiling to ask one on Zoom where there isn't a hand within the KH audience. He is slowly getting used to it, and he even made the remark if he has been neglecting those on Zoom, just unmute themselves and say "Zoom zoom" to get his attention, which none have yet done as yet (we on the sound desk let the Zoom attendees unmute themselves when they called on to comment, or we prompt them to unmute themselves when they called upon but haven't unmuted when giving their answer).

 

In our congregation, those on Zoom usually the log on just before the meeting starts. But when the meeting finishes, we assign everyone on Zoom into a breakout room after the meeting. If there are plenty of users on Zoom, or there are some particular ones, such as if the public speaker was delivering his talk on Zoom or ones who have been away or sick who may happen to be on Zoom. At times, we have had to assign a user in the breakout room to become the host, as they were still jibbering jabbering away when we wanted to shutdown the computer at the sound desk because everyone is leaving the KH.

[Dustparticle]

On 11/24/2023 at 3:26 AM, Brad Smith said:

Found this very interesting. Going to meetings seemed much better than using Zoom - if you can get there - now I know why.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt9MTqrzOKU

 

 

To get dumber you had to be be dumb first. 

[Korotkiy]

that`s a text summarize version of this science article:

https://news.yale.edu/2023/10/25/zooming-our-brains-zoom

 

[LeolaRootStew]

7 hours ago, Pabo said:

We have a new elder that just recently now moved into our congregation, and he is not yet fully adjusted to our Zoom setup when he conducts his parts from the platform.

In our KH the zoom attendant has a special hand (made of paper?) that he raises when someone on Zoom has a hand up. This allows the speaker to scan the crowd as usual instead of having to look back and forth and risk neglecting anyone. 

[Dolce vita]

46 minutes ago, LeolaRootStew said:

Dans notre KH, le préposé à Zoom a une main spéciale (en papier ?) qu'il lève lorsque quelqu'un sur Zoom lève la main. Cela permet à l'orateur de scruter la foule comme d'habitude au lieu d'avoir à regarder d'avant en arrière et de risquer de négliger qui que ce soit. 

Ingenious🤩

[Tortuga]

2 hours ago, LeolaRootStew said:

In our KH the zoom attendant has a special hand (made of paper?) that he raises when someone on Zoom has a hand up. This allows the speaker to scan the crowd as usual instead of having to look back and forth and risk neglecting anyone. 

What color is it? Blue or orange?

[Qapla]

Back, when all we had was a phone tie-in, we had a phone receiver the sound attendant would hold up when someone on the phone wanted to comment ... he just help it up to let the conductor know there was a comment on the phone. ... It was just a standard black handset without a cord

 

 

[LeolaRootStew]

7 hours ago, Tortuga said:

What color is it? Blue or orange?

I want to say yellow, but i can't remember if I made that up or someone told me..

 

[dove]

1 hour ago, LeolaRootStew said:

I want to say yellow, but i can't remember if I made that up or someone told me..

 

I thought it was yellow too

[truce]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:35 PM, lord21 said:

Zoom has made publishers lazy

Is this your personal experience?

Edited January 20 by truce

[lord21]

No, I'm talking about publishers in general. 

[zoebarry]

On 11/24/2023 at 8:35 AM, lord21 said:

Zoom has made publishers lazy.

Wow, that’ll rather judgmental, isn’t it?