So, how do we foster better conversations in our online spaces? Creating a Space Where Teams Feel Accepted There are a lot of varied and valid reasons someone could choose to opt out of talking. However, undoing the effects of the mute button takes more than just asking everyone to unmute.
When we give ourselves more barriers to participation it makes it just that much harder to be present. A lot of our meetings require conversation and interaction. That said, muting ourselves on video calls means we often miss out on opportunities to collaborate and interact with information, as well as with each other.
Many of us go through all aspects of life worried about how we come across to others. There’s no way to push the mute button on a real life conversation, so why are we so attached to that little microphone button on Zoom? But why do we approach this new age of interaction this way when that isn’t at all how meetings go in person? If someone were to sneeze in the middle of a conversation, we say, “Bless you,” and move on with our respective lives. The silence on video conferencing calls feels sacred, and asking a question or adding to the conversation becomes even more of an interruption as a result. Any burp, hiccup, sneeze, vacuum in the background, dog barking, etc., felt way more impactful than it actually was. Everyone presses it by default out of fear of being the source of an odd or annoying noise. I was an undergraduate learning assistant for a class at Michigan State University during the 2020-2021 school year, and one of the things that immediately killed most chances for engagement with the course material was that damn mute button. So then, why are we so quick to mute ourselves the instant we enter video call meetings in this new era of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, etc.? Whatever the case, if you’ve pressed the mute button on your phone during a conversation, you have a well-thought-out reason or you wouldn’t be on the call in the first place. Maybe you have stepped away for a moment, or perhaps you are on hold and just want to be sure nobody can hear you while that waiting music plays. Perhaps a second person is talking to you in real life and you need to pause the conversation. Most (if not all) modern smartphones give you the option to mute yourself when in a phone call, but there are very few situations in which we actually use it. When the other person was talking, did you push the mute button on your phone? Recall the last time you had a conversation over the phone and ask yourself one question. When was the last time you had a phone call? Maybe you called a parent, a friend, or a client.
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