Tonight I had three separate Zoom calls: one with three friends from high school, one with two friends from college, and one with one of my closest friends whose kids wandered in at the end of it. And I am SO stressed out at this moment. Last night we had a work happy hour with our new boss and I was mired in social anxiety afterward. Was that a weird thing to say? Was my spontaneous answer to her question also a pretentious-sounding answer?
It is silly for me to worry that my friend's kids are giving a lot of space in their heads tonight to the tail end of that conversation. They are teenagers! They have so many other things to think about! They already know that I am a quirky person and that their mom loves me anyway!
I posted back in May about the effect of the pandemic on my social anxiety, and I have to say that Zoom aggravates it. When is it my turn to talk? Are people looking away because I should stop talking now, or because it's hard to know where to look on a Zoom call?
This post is just to say: if the pandemic is fueling your social anxiety, you are not alone. I miss in-person social cues.
Recent Comments