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Why Videoconferencing Makes You More Likable

Liz Jin
3 min readApr 30, 2020

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It’s Harder to Dislike Your Coworkers Once You’ve Seen Inside Their Home.

Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

If I saw a giant Nazi swastika or a photo of KKK members on your wall, it goes without saying that I would be horrified. But on the countless videoconference calls that I’ve been on in the last few weeks, I’ve mostly seen family photos, paintings, and sports memorabilia adorn the backgrounds of my colleague’s screens. I’ve virtually been inside home offices, beach condos, patios, basements, even bathrooms where exhausted parents have fled to as a refuge from needy children. I’ll admit, the nosy part of me has loved peeking inside these homes.

But what I didn’t expect was that I would like my coworkers so much more as a result of videoconferencing.

There is something quite intimate about seeing inside someone’s home. What kind of wallpaper they hung in their living room, what inspirational quote they chose to put above their desk, what could be more personal than seeing the design choices for a space that one comes home to each day.

Photo by alexandra lammerink on Unsplash

It’s different than the personal touches you might find in an office. We tend to have a “work” persona, and the items you…

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Liz Jin
Liz Jin

Written by Liz Jin

“I wake up in the morning with a desire to both save the world and savor the world. That makes it hard to plan my day.”

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