To be sick of selfish family Zoom calls?

[Freewheelingoryx]

Just venting! I know there are more serious things to stress about. But is anyone else sick of family Zoom calls where you are make sure you ask after your brother's business, your sister's painful wrist, your nephew's exam, your nieces's on-line judo class, the cat, the cat's mother etc etc, and not one person asks you one single question about yourself in return? It's happened so often now that DH and I have started to joke about it.

Will do Pelosi!

I hate zoom calls... I feel on edge all the time and can't seem to know when to speak/ask anything. Usually end up saying nothing while various others hog the limelight .

I don’t think what you said sounds like an interrogation — obviously you just wrote it that way but I have to imagine your questions came up naturally in conversation. MNers will stretch the boundaries of logical inference to extraordinary lengths to find a way to disagree with an OP. The truth is most people just want to talk about themselves. I bet they adore you because you show feign genuine interest. Sadly they don’t bother to do the same for you.

wearywithteens I hope my post just there didn't come across in a snippy way. That wasn't my intention. I do think people have different ways of communicating and less formal is probably best for Zoom I agree.

1morewineplease yes I think it's difficult to be at ease Zooming when there are loads of people on it and you are not used to the medium.

@Twickerhun nah that can not be real. An agenda and pre set questions?? Oh please do tell us more!!

@Aquamarine1029

I have a strict no Zoom policy. That would solve your problem.

This is also a Zoom-free house.

Thank goodness we don’t do family Zoom! Family WhatsApp is bad enough!

@Gingerinthegarden why did she lie like that? Was she trying to make you look bad or is it because it was you and the kids and she wanted DH there too, so therefore they didn't count?

Now, selfish school parents on Zoom lessons.... that’s a thing!

Cokeandpepsi I am interested in what the DC are doing and they tend to have interesting answers ; I hold my hand up to being more fornulaically polite, if that's a word, with some of the adults, not all of the time but sometimes for sure.

[quote PurpleMustang]@Twickerhun nah that can not be real. An agenda and pre set questions?? Oh please do tell us more!! [/quote]
Oh it was bad. I think it was an attempt to manage lots of people on the same zoom and the ensure we heard from everyone. It was stuff like tell us in 4 mins each, what was your highlight of 2020, what are your New Years resolutions, what are you looking forward to in 2021. It was heartily facilitated like a learning and development event in 2001. everyone dutifully said their bit for 4 mins each although I spoke for about 40 seconds.

Wearywithteens you sound very naturally good at communicating! I would enjoy a Zoom call with you I am sure

They're not compulsory.

People say “talk about yourself more”.

Well maybe. But my sense is that people who only talk about themselves as infjnitum are not actually interested in others. You can try and force them of course, like in a hostage situation, but you will notice them talking over you, interrupting, etc. So you are wasting your breath and energy AND basically throwing pearl after swine! Still if you and DH can have a laugh about it after I sppose that’s something!

Zoom, never done it, never will (unless for work )

@katy1213

They're not compulsory.

No they're not but if you are regularly the only one missing from a large group of siblings who have all arranged to Zoom one another, say on Christmas day, it gets a bit difficult. I have missed the odd one.

I don't use Zoom but have used Teams for teaching. Is there a raised hand function so you can signal that you want to speak?

I claim zoom fatigue due to work and avoid family calls

No there isn't Echt , it probably would help but maybe a bit regimented for a family call?

Think we may shortly claim "WiFi issues" ...

I bloody hate multi zoom calls, Internationally, for our family I wish you could press a button to say I want to go next rather than a time delayed butt- in. Frustrating!

What I find quite interesting/amusing on this thread is that you seem to be responding to each and every comment which is not the norm on MN and mirrors how I imagine the zoom calls are going where you address every single person at some point.

It must just be a personality trait (observation not a criticism).

We're sticking with a fb Messenger chat. It works. Mother, me, three sisters, and six daughters/nieces, haven't killed each other yet. Things may change in the next year or so, after about fifty years there will finally be males in our direct family line who are old enough to have social media accounts!

I will happily answer questions but then feel a bit rude asking people questions back. Why cant you just tell them 🤷‍♀️