Zooming Through a Crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has led the world not to shut down but to move from the physical to the virtual. Various technologies have been used to maintain a sense of normalcy during the pandemic, as we can now work online, shop online, and socialize online. The perceived success of this technological resiliency in the face of a global health crisis has given rise to questions about whether the move from the physical to the virtual should be maintained even after the pandemic. Given the possibility that this “new normal” could soon become simply what is considered as “normal,” this paper will investigate what it means that we have indeed been able to use technologies to maintain order in a time of global disorder. To answer this question, this paper will focus on the technology that has become most synonymous with the pandemic—Zoom—and use postphenomenology, critical theory of technology, and Arendt's political philosophy in order to investigate its use during the pandemic.