https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/16/rally-wants-to-make-big-group-video-calls-more-fun-more-real-and-maybe-less-exhausting/

Another day, another video meeting. Or video happy hour. Or video birthday party. Another grid of 30 faces, all sort of trying to have one conversation.

While it’s beyond wonderful to have access to these big group video chat platforms during this pandemic dumpster fire, they’re all a bit… exhausting. Part of that is just the inherent weirdness of talking with a screen, but a big part of it is that video gatherings just don’t flow the way their real world counterparts do. When you get people together for a real-life party, you’re usually not cramming 30 people into one big group, the collective focus silently shifting to whichever face managed to get a word out. You break off into smaller groups. Everyone holds their own little conversations, moving to whichever chat catches their ear on the way to the food/bar/bathroom/whatever.