Worn out by endless Zoom conference calls? In this episode, we are thrilled to have Professor Elizabeth Keating, an anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin, talk to us about what we are missing by working remotely. Elizabeth has studied the social impacts of remote communication long before the pandemic forced us into remote work—a practice that seems here to stay. She explains how we are missing out on important social cues, such as body language, gestures, or peripheral hallway communications, that are essential for robust communication. Elizabeth’s article on the subject is fascinating. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/why-do-virtual-meetings-feel-so-weird.

Elizabeth also tells us about how we can understand our families through the lens of an anthropologist—and learn things we never would have known. https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Questions-Interview-Uncover-Generations/dp/0593420926

“When you're facing a bunch of people on the screen, you can't focus your attention on everybody at once in the same way that you can in a face-to-face interaction" - Elizabeth Keating

"One of the things that is disrupting about virtual conversations is you don't know what people are looking at." - Elizabeth Keating

"We're missing those glorious moments of really connecting with people and having that exhilaration of collaboration and cooperation." - Elizabeth Keating

This week on Disarming Data:

• How Elizabeth got interested in the social impacts of technology
• Why interacting online via meeting apps can feel so strange
• What lower body cues are, how subtle they can be, and why they can be tricky to recognize when video chatting
• Understanding the social cues for beginning and finishing up a meeting
• Whether we would communicate better with one another if we were all back in the office talking to each other in person
• Why joint attention is the fundamental architecture for human interaction and how we learn it as babies
• Whether there are new cues people are picking up because we’re spending so much in online meetings
• Elizabeth shares why being on-site helps with peripheral participation in mentorship opportunities
• How AI technology is changing how we measure academic learning
• The importance of putting technological advances in a cultural context
• More about Elizabeth’s recent book The Essential Questions: Interview Your Family to Uncover Stories and Bridge Generations and how it helps people connect

Connect with Elizabeth Keating:

• Elizabeth Keating's Website
• Elizabeth Keating on LinkedIn
• Elizabeth Keating on Facebook
• Elizabeth Keating on Twitter
• Elizabeth Keating on Instagram

Connect with Disarming Data:

• David Biderman on LinkedIn