Why should it feel so bleak? there's a camera out there I imagine applause... I smile at screens.... there's a camera out there it connects me to an audience I smile at screens.... I see them wave back at me it connects me to an audience Why should it feel so bleak? I see them wave back at me I imagine applause...
Why should it feel so bleak?


Very good poem. Kinda fits with my experience this week with a few virtual funerals… it’s just not right. No fellow-feeling… just a cold camera….
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You are right. But it is being done in absence of any other option.
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Agreed… better than nothing, I suppose. Sorry, just overwhelmed this week. I’ve got to get offline and head out to the cemetery for a graveside service here in a few. I’ll be playing taps for this one. A cold, wet morning for it. Only hope my wooden flute will actually play.
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All the best!
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Very moving piece. Smiling at screens is certainly getting old.
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Look at the plus side. We’ve experienced mirrors more than ever while talking on Zoom.
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It IS very strange, isn’t it? I’d given presentations by video, where I could not really see anyone who was listening, only the number of ‘audience present’ or some such. It is an odd thing talking to yourself and believing others might be there, someplace, listening to you. And yet, it is a reality these days, isn’t it? … If I can help it, I try to have at least one person (the moderator, whomever) leave their camera on, so I can see at least one little square-with-a-face. It does get easier, but it is strange still. I FAR prefer presenting in person, travel hassle and all.
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Trainers say – look at that tiny green light of the camera and talk. The video is natural. I prefer giving a voice-over to a presentation and recording it for YouTube. The request of webinar speakers to keep typing something in the chatbox proves the need to feel the presence of an audience.
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Yeah, I’m comfortable enough doing this, all told, but it is no substitute in my view to in-person presentations/workshops. I don’t attend to chatboxes during webinars (usually a facilitator/moderator/host does that), but it IS nice to know there are actual people out there paying attention .. 😉
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Agree. At times, the youngsters place a gif nodding head in the profile pic and disappear. I took sometime to figure out it was a gif, and the attendee was missing 🙂 I ask them to switch on cameras off and on, in case the network is on – just to keep a check.
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LOL! Whatever works! 🙂
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Performing for a camera must be really weird, yet there are millions doing it!
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It is a way of life for performers now.
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I like your carousel of virtual reality.
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Thanks! I like use of the word ‘carousel’.
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You’re welcome.
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A performance before a camera alone must be surreal — and lonely. Well-told, Reena!
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It takes a different skill-set. Thank you so much, Dora!
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A virtual audience is better than no audience at all!
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A valid point!
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A cyber connection is still a connection, however distant we may be.
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Fully agree. That is how you and I are connected.
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It definitely feels harder to connect through a screen, but I am so glad we have them to keep us keeping on until we can get together again.
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We are connecting longer and wider – across continents.
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Man, you are all full of doom and gloom this week!
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Really? 🙂 Smiling here…
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Virtual just ain’t the same as right there in person.
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We need to remain on the virtual bandwagon for sometime.
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holidays over
we no longer in clover
plove
to lent
and bent
an being free
to smile
anyways
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Yes, concerts and sports really need that live audience or they just don’t mean anything anymore.
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This is how certain shows are being shot and telecast.
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Dear Reena,
Bleak times we’re living in. The audience’s energy is missing.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you so much, Rochelle!
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The emptiness of the social media age
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Yes. Thanks, Neil!
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