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The Rules for Having Lunch Over Zoom

AJ Jacobs
4 min readMar 23, 2020

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Photo: Westend61/Getty

SSocial distancing doesn’t mean you can’t be distantly social. It doesn’t mean that you can’t connect with people or that you can’t be closer than you were before this, even with people you’re not stuck in the same house with.

In fact, our mental health depends on staying in touch with other humans. We are gregarious animals. This is why I’ve been having at least one virtual meal a day with a friend, colleague, cousin, or random business contact. It’s a powerful way to attempt something normal at a time when nothing is normal.

And oddly, in these times when every emotion is heightened, the connection feels more personal than it would be if you were face to face in the Before Corona world.

By coincidence, I have a ton of experience with touch-free friendships. About five years ago, I started a tradition of Skype lunches. I ordered lunch, my friend or business associate ordered lunch, and we ate that lunch together while chatting over Skype. Since then, I’ve done hundreds of Skype lunches or variations on the theme (Zoom dinners, Google Hangout coffees, etc.).

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Forge
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Published in Forge

A former publication from Medium on personal development. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

AJ Jacobs
AJ Jacobs

Written by AJ Jacobs

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers. Learn more: https://ajjacobs.com/

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