Readers’ pick: Forgetting to mute yourself

Your camera is off. Your microphone is muted. But you forgot to send a message privately to a friend, and now you’ve embarrassed yourself in front of the whole class.

We’ve all been there before. You are slightly bored in class and longing to talk to your friend whose video is in a box  sitting in the corner of your screen, enticing you to reach out. You open up the chat bar on Zoom to send your friend a message, but you forget to send it privately. 

Oops, now the whole class has seen what was meant to be a private message, and your comment is sitting there permanently for everyone to stare at during the rest of lecture. The professor gives you a quizzical look.

“Do you have a question?” 

You don’t. You’ve just fallen victim to one of the many embarrassing things that happen during online learning. 

An uncomfortable silence that follows, you messily try to excuse it. You’re humiliated – you’ve committed the most embarrassing Zoom moment.

You long for the days when you can be in a classroom again and return to the old-fashioned method of passing notes, or better yet, just stick to texting.

As many students continue their college education at their kitchen tables, living room couches and messy beds, it seems that every 75-minute time block of Zoom class is filled with awkward mishaps as students and professors alike struggle to assimilate to this new form of learning. Of the many embarrassing things that can happen during online learning, accidentally sending the whole class a private message takes the cake.