Youre hosting a Zoom birthday celebration for your coworker and if youre being honest its kind of a disaster Twenty people on a grid everyone taking turns saying happy birthday in that flat tired way that video calls seem to produce The energy is already fading after five minutes and over here you can feel the awkwardness settling in like a heavy fog

The birthday person lets call her Elena is smiling politely but you can tell shes disappointed This wasnt anyones first choice for a celebration Back before everything changed you would have gone out for drinks after work or gathered at someones apartment for cake and conversation But now in the middle of everything being virtual and distant this Zoom call was the best option anyone could come up with

And its not like that people dont care They do You can see it in the.