We hope your boss doesn’t read this.
A Brooklyn developer and artist has created a digital tool called Zoom Escaper that allows users to get out of boring work-related video calls.
“Zoom Escaper is a tool that will help you get away from Zoom meetings and other telecom scenarios,” said creator Sam Lavigne wrote on Twitter on Monday, launching the project. “It allows you to self-sabotage your audio stream, which makes your presence unbearable for others.”
Among other things, it mimics digital interference and disruptive external noise.
And it has the meeting attendees delighted: the ad has over 3,000 likes.
The digital destroyer is the perfect antidote to Zoom fatigue, a term for the overwhelming sensations of deflation and exhaustion caused by a year of work and remote learning through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In Zoom, the behavior normally reserved for close relationships, such as long stretches of direct gaze and faces seen up close, has suddenly become the way we interact with casual acquaintances, co-workers, and even strangers. “, wrote Jeremy N. in a recent article on the new phenomenon in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior.
Despite its name, Zoom Escaper can be used “in any program that uses your microphone,” including Google Meet, Lavigne said.
Users can download the program for free at ZoomEscaper.com. Lavigne has detailed instructions for use.
Effects include technical difficulties, such as delays, echoes, and agitated audio. They also include some external interference, such as the sounds of a crying man blowing a strong wind, a crying baby, construction, and barking dogs.
You can also post your own disturbing sounds on the website.
Be sure to try it out with a friend before attempting to leave a work call – users can’t hear sound effects during a meeting, only other participants.