recursive 🏳️‍🌈Jan 22, 2023
Really hate this idea of video chat software faking eye contact. Not because of presenting something that doesn't reflect reality, but because its reifying a neurotypical model of what is right and good in how humans present themselves
Show threadfen Jan 22, 2023

@recursive and also, like, maybe we don’t need to make digital remote communication more like being in person. No matter the iteration it never feels right. No matter the iteration, we’re still not in the same place having a fully shared experience, each of us has a second,l context the other only gets a window into.

Maybe it’s ok that it feels that way too?

Show threadnicki xaphania mouse 🐁Jan 23, 2023
@crayzeigh @recursive eye contact in video calls doesn't even make sense. if you're looking at the speaker, you're not looking directly into the camera and vice versa. they're trying to simulate something that doesn't even exist in the first place
Show threadfen Jan 23, 2023
@xaphania @recursive I mean it _can_ exist (I know folks with a teleprompter setup that can mimic this exactly by putting zoom on the prompter screen for instance) but it’s unusual. My bigger concern is with the behavioral expectations it’s setting that are distinctly taking the needs and behaviors of ND folks and othering them. It’s assuming that everyone wants and should make eye contact during video calls and I’d argue neither is true.
Show threadfen 

@xaphania @recursive it’s kind of why I’m less weirded out by it on face time too, I think?

FaceTime is a little thing in my hand. When I look at the screen I’m intending to look at the person on the other end so it’s ok if it does that.

That’s not necessarily the case on a big computer screen. I might want to look at the speaker, I might want to be looking at some document… idk, it feels weird and unsettling in a way that tweaking FT doesn’t.

Jan 23, 2023 at 1:21pmWeb