If I may show my age for a minute, I remember when I was a kid seeing an advertisement for a video phone and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Mind you, this was pre-smart phone. Cell phones were around but few people I knew had one. This thing in the ad was a home phone with a tiny little video screen you could allegedly use to see the person on the other end of the conversation.

This. Blew. My. Mind.

I couldn’t wait for the day when this was no longer a luxury item, but a common thing. It felt like I was gazing into the glorious future. Well, now that future is here and it’s…um…it’s fine?

We’re up to our necks in video chats, coaching each other through connection issues and bad microphones and a dozen other things that don’t feel as Star Trek-ian as I’d hoped they would as a kid. But at least we got some good memes out of them.

14. Lower standards mean higher happiness

13. I woke up like this

12. How has my social life gotten BETTER?

11. You rang?

10. We’re an out-of-sync a capella group

9. Just be cute, use your mute

8. The wonders of technology

7. It’s lit

6. At least somebody’s doing well?

5. I’m the keymaster

4. And they’d have gotten away with it too…

3. My therapist needs a therapist

2. Witness the real me

1. Be selective of your vices

So, maybe the future isn’t all we’d hoped for. But the cool thing about the future is that it’s always still coming. Maybe if we work together we can still make a better world, and a way to video chat that doesn’t make me want to stab my computer monitor.

What’s your worst/best zoom story?

Tell us in the comments.