Before 2020 ZOOM almost seemed like a novelty way to work and play.
Now, it's the mainstay.
Wow, this has been a long two years.
And oh my goodness, the things we've seen because of it?!
ZOOM has given us a literal window into one another's worlds,
and some of those worlds are a "WTF is happening" situation.
Redditoryarakmansarak1wanted to hear about all the ZOOM calls that have left many of us SHOOKETH! SO they asked:
"What is the most terrifying thing that happened during a Zoom Call?"
I was late to the ZOOM party. Still am. And my jobs allow me to be dark screened.
So you'll never know my drama. LOL...
Mute Please
Be Quiet Go Away GIF by Ryn DeanGiphy"It was mandatory to keep our mics and cameras on and my parents were having a screaming match in the background. Maybe not terrifying but it was horrible."
mommyittickles
PING!
"Last time when I was having a discord call with my online friends (playing mc together), we saw fire in one of my friend's background. We were telling him that there was fire outside his window but he had deafened his discord and he couldn't hear us. Some guy spam pinged him in the no-mic and then he saw the message, turned around, and left the meeting The whole group freaked out because he didn't respond for a week, even after we spam pinged him again."
"At the end of that week he messaged in the chat and said that he freaked out a lot but his house was intact and no one was hurt but the small patch of trees behind his house. (I'm pretty sure the message saved his life)"
Ilias_2008
Mean Girls
"A personal social nightmare. During a discussion heavy class I was taking last year I had a question that turned into a 2-3 minute back and forth with the teacher as they expounded on my question. Just when they were redirecting the convo back to their PowerPoint slides one of the girls in the class wasn’t on mute and someone in their room, I guess their roommate or something, said, 'that guy has such an annoying voice' and the girl responded, 'I hate hearing him talk, every time he opens his mouth I’m just waiting for him to shut up.'”
"Teacher reminded everyone to mute themselves and the girl got wide-eyed and muted herself. We could see her tell her roommate about it and then laughing, but they didn't apologize or anything. There was just a few moments of silence and then the teacher moved on. I stepped away from my computer for a bit and barely ever said anything the rest of the semester."
BK_Hazard
Speaking Up
"I attended a virtual networking zoom for work and during the main speaker event someone unmuted. They were clearly on the phone with someone and started going 'oh no I can talk now. It’s cool I’m just on this stupid webinar. I’m not even going to listen to this.'"
overduedoughnut
"HAHAHA. That happened with my company too. My work leadership wanted to do 'spirit meetings' to 'boost morale' and one of the agents had a hot mic that picked up her saying, 'Hang on, I gotta go to this wack-a** meeting.' It was amazing. She was just saying what we were all thinking."
pandamomium824
Hide Dad
GIF by CTV Comedy ChannelGiphy"I was giving a university lecture on zoom, i only require camera if it's an evaluation. One of my students were speaking, camera on, and her dad shows by only wearing a g-string. He realizes that the camera is on and makes a quick escape."
Mediocre-Doughnut637
How hard is it to mute? Although now I'm going to be super sensitive to make sure for myself.
Caught
Lights Camera Action Thumbs Up GIF by Milwaukee PanthersGiphy"Saw a guy's wife beat him over the head with a purse. He was on mute and no one else on the call had noticed. I had to interrupt the call to ask if he was OK. Apparently, the wife had been abusing him for a while and this was the final straw that made him leave her."
fulthrottlejazzhands
Shots Fired
"Multiple shots being fired at the apartment across from me. I was on my weekly team call when it happened and I was asking a question so I was unmuted I went holy s**t those are gunshots and hit the floor. All my team saw was me throwing my headset off and frantically rolling off my couch. Supposedly my mic picked up me calling 911. Don't get involved with drugs everyone. There's a chance people will come and try to shoot you in the middle of the day."
nerdgirl37
'Hey IRL name.'
"Was on discord with friends and hopped in a work call early. I forgot I switched calls, and walked away from my desk with my headset on to go get a snack before the meeting. Someone said 'Hey IRL name.' Thinking it’s a gaming friend, I blurt out 'the f**k? Since when do you call me IRL name.'”
"Was not a gaming friend. Was the CEO. (I work for a start up so I luckily have a decent relationship with him) I realized my mistake a second later and mentioned that I’d been sitting in a call with friends while working today and apologized. He luckily laughed it off with me and never brought it up again."
ChocoboToes
For TEN minutes...
"Last year during the Dixie Fire in California, CalFire set up a Zoom meeting to give a state of affairs for residents who were evacuated. It was a public meeting. Whomever hosted, didn’t understand how to mute people. Some dudes came on and started saying utterly offensive and disgusting things. For TEN minutes."
"Every bad word, insult, vulgarity you could imagine. The CalFire team didn’t seem to understand how to mute people, or how to read the comments telling them what was happening. My husband was a fireman deployed to that fire and I was pissed. Just wanted information."
LittleWhiteBoots
TP 911
Toilet Paper Comedy GIFGiphy"Attended a zoom wedding and one old couple didn't know you had to self mute. Just prior to the wedding beginning the wife (offscreen) yelled 'Toilet paper, I need toilet paper quick!' Then just after the wedding ceremony finished same lady said 'That was the most boring wedding talk I've ever heard.'"
Nouveaucola
Clips
"My friend is a special ed teacher. A student recorded a brief clip of an inopportune moment and almost got him fired for inappropriate behavior - sexual harrasment. He was playing a harmonica and briefly had his back turned to the computer. The student turned down the volume on his computer and said my friend was simulating oral sex. There was an investigation and he was cleared, but it was pretty traumatic for him."
LeeSheltonsHat
So Helpful...
"Yeah, I teach, and I prefer cameras on for the younger classes so I can see if they're paying attention, but mics on only when it's your turn to talk and cameras optional for teenagers. I had a good student not responding to questions when usually she'd be full of ideas, and it turned out her grandmother was having a meltdown caused by dementia and the student was home alone with her trying to reach her parents and avoid calling the police to respond."
"One of her parents was in the room with me (we were team teaching from on campus) and was pulled aside to go deal with the crisis, which was how I found out. I was teaching a professional development workshop on best practices for online classes and shared the story as an example of exactly why cameras and microphones should be optional."
"You don't know what's happening in the background and why the student isn't responding."
NeonHairbrush
Trauma
"At the middle school I used to go to a teacher got assaulted by her boyfriend. Apparently he didn't know her entire class could hear it and it was recorded as well. They were not on camera but the threats and sounds were enough to arrest him."
"Edit: did a little research and it was actually filmed as well and a video of it circulated online for a while. The latest update is a month later and the guy was being charged for abuse and the teacher was still not working because of the trauma."
Joka96
Best Class
Oh My GIF by OmazeGiphy"Girl crap-talked our professor without turning off her mic. Someone recorded it and went viral on TikTok. Several million views. Funny thing is, best class I’ve ever taken."
_MilkBone_
Meow
"My cat once walked over the keyboard and I said, 'sure, why wouldn't you walk over there?! It's not a laptop. It's a modelling ramp your father built for you!!' Turns out she had unmuted my mic. The instructor politely asked everyone to mute their mics."
1ta_Agni
“I need to go”
"At the end of 2019 I was at the office in London, and on a Zoom with about a dozen other folks spread across the US. Got some pretty shocking news during the call, and felt a cold sweat come on, a lightheaded sensation, and then searing burning pain in my chest."
"I’d suffered a massive heart attack, and apparently managed to say 'I need to go' and then pushed my chair back from my desk and just collapsed. Thankfully it was still working hours and the office had people in it, so my team-mates got me into a safe place, grabbed my nitro spray, called an ambulance, etc, and all was eventually well."
"I ended up having a quadruple bypass not long after this. Had it been an hour or two later in the day I’d have probably died as the office would have been empty."
matdotcx
Poor Kid
"Blind kid in a zoom class at the end of last year during english, I see out of the corner of my eye he is the only one with a camera on, teacher was chill if we didn’t want them on while online. Starts stroking his soldier in front of half the class and the teacher. Teacher kicked him from the class without saying anything and continued on with the lecture like nothing happened. Poor guy probably didn’t even know, but yeah that was a very jarring English class."
Sparklebugsy
The Crawl
"My brother was on a zoom interview for a job in England early in the morning in my basement where we had our computers set up and I used to have my room. I crawled across behind him to avoid being seen in my underwear as I needed to get some clothes from my old wardrobe. My brother later told me he could clearly see me crawling across. I jokingly say his interviewer told him, 'your sex slave is escaping.' Funny enough he got the job."
imodea
Options
Hide Reaction GIF by florGiphy"Had an optional zoom meeting with my boss and the head of a software company who's product we use. I was the only one who showed up. I wanted to die."
dont_tempt_me_frodo_
tabs
"This happened when I joined my company as a fresher and I was in training period. So one of the trainers started sharing his screen and it had porn tabs open. He stopped sharing instantly but everyone saw it. Then the other trainer (who was a lady btw) told him to leave the meeting saying she will take care of the rest."
angrybunny09
ZOOM is not the way. Be careful people.
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.