elizabethlevett

Recent phone call from my brother…

Me: “Hi, how’ve you been? How are things going?”

Him: “Okay, so I’m on Zoom and I can’t figure out how to add my students. I hate this so much.”

Me: “Oh, yeah. So, I haven’t done that yet.”

Silence, Him: deep breath, “Okay…”

Me: “Is there somewhere on the page you’re on that has any kind of icon for contacts?”

Him: “Oh, yeah. There it is. Now I have to get all their email addresses in here. (pause) Okay, I gotta go.”

Recent phone call from my friend who teaches at City College…

Me: “Hi, how’ve you been? How are things going?”

Him: “Great. So, you’ve done some movies on YouTube for your kids, right?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Him: “How do I upload them?”

Me: “You hit the share button and go to file…”

Him: “Okay, share, then file, then…”

Me: “You shot them with iMovie, right? Because you have to compress them. I moved them to file so then you can change the size of the file. YouTube won’t let you upload if the file’s too big so then it goes into QuickTime. You can easily drag it in from there.”

Him: “Oh, wait, what? I shot them in Zoom…”

Me: “Oh.” pause “I don’t think I can help you with that over the phone…”

Recent conversation on the porch with my next-door neighbor…

Her (laughing absurdly): “I just got off the phone with Tim and Melissa. He was trying to figure out how to do a Google Classroom! He was so pissed. I finally told him to put Mel on the phone!” Both of us erupt in laughter.

Me: “Oh man. I was on two Zoom meetings today and was so pleased about my Google Classroom until everybody started talking about SeeSaw!”

My husband (the champion feminist of all partners): “Yeah. These tech bros all want you to use this stuff and then a woman has to walk you through it.”

If you had told me ten years ago, or last year, or even six weeks ago, that my role would stretch into this territory, I would have gotten triggered and either would have had to breathe into a paper bag or else would have just laughed nervously. It’s insane. It’s overwhelming. And it’s an education. And may this be the worst thing we have to face under these circumstances. Because if it is, I’m in.