‘Staying connected’ in one ‘space’. On spending the same amount of time online
Good night! This is Saito. When you communicate with someone, do you communicate online or offline? With work colleagues? With friends? With family…?
Communication in the past, communication in the future
Until now, I think offline communication has been by far the most common method of communication. When it came to online communication, online was often chosen when communicating with people who lived far away…when distance separated them. However, after the Corona Disaster, I think that online has become a much more popular means of communication, even if the distance is short.
Today I will tell you about my husband and me.
Style of not being in the same room together.
To conclude first, my wife and I communicate primarily online, even though we are in the same house, which is a very close proximity.
Our family consists of two humans and two cats. The humans are me and my husband. The cats are a brother cat and a sister cat. The cats usually live in the living room. The two humans also spend some time in the living room, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that the cats are the masters of the living room, since they are the ones who look after the living room while the humans are at work.
My husband and I now work from home with each other. Fortunately, we have our own room. At one time we worked in the living room, but there are limitations to working separately in the same space, so we naturally settled on working in each other’s rooms.
My husband and I have very different tastes in food. If one of us prepared food for two people, there was always a level of frustration, so now we both prepare separate foods and eat them when we want to. Sometimes we eat together, but basically I do my own thing.
My husband and I love to play games. We have been familiar with games since we were little and have loved online games since we were exposed to the Internet when we were young. We met and married each other through online games. Now that we are older, we both still love to play on the computer, on the Internet, and in games. So even now, we create the best environment for each other and enjoy our hobbies to the fullest.
Image by Adobe Firefly
We are in each other’s rooms except when we are playing with or taking care of our cats. Sometimes, we visit the other’s room, but it is hard for us to feel at home, so we basically stay in our own rooms. We communicate with each other using Discord from our own PCs in our own rooms.
Whether we are playing the same game or doing something different, we talk on the phone most of the time when we don’t have other plans. Of course, there is not always a lot to talk about, so there are times when we are not talking. On the other hand, there are times when we talk to each other and have a conversation just as often as when we are in the same space, such as in the living room.
On weekdays, after we both finish work, we eat and bathe at different times. When the time comes, we gather in the living room to do housework, take care of the cat, play with the cat, and communicate with each other. When that time is over, we both go back to our rooms and join the Discord server. Then we often play games. On weekends and holidays, we do different things with only our calls connected, except when we go out. (We have more meals together than we do on weekdays.)
Common hobbies, playing games
Sometimes we play the same game, sometimes we play different games. When we play games with each other’s friends, we are almost always mixed together. Playing games with people other than ourselves, this is a very good point when we play games with each other in our own rooms. When we play games in the same room with people other than ourselves, there is always the question, “How do we do voice chat?” problem arises. If you try to use a single microphone to carry two people’s voices, you will most likely end up carrying noise as well. The ideal situation is to be able to pick up the other person’s voice clearly, while still being able to hear our own voices without being mixed up. To achieve this, it is ideal to play the game in different rooms, not in the same room.
Image by Adobe Firefly
When we play a type of game where we share the same screen, we play the game in the living room. Usually, the cat also starts playing together, so it may look like a good old-fashioned family gathering, in a good way.
After all, in all seriousness, we talk face to face for less than 10 minutes a day outside of this time. Conversely, online, we talk for more than four hours. This means that most of our conversations take place online.
Online conversations are not stressful partly because of the familiarity of the relationship, but also because we are both creating an environment that is concerned with sound quality. It is comparable to talking in person, and there is no noise, so it is easy. We also do a good job of noise cancellation, so the slightest noise doesn’t get in. Another nice thing is that we don’t have to worry about the volume of each other’s voices. My voice is much louder than most people my husband has met in his life, while his voice is much quieter than most people I have met in my life. So it is probably more stressful for us to talk to each other in person. With online conversations, we can each set a good volume going into the microphone, and we can each set the volume we hear.
Perhaps it is because their hobbies are so compatible that they can make this choice. Because both of them are devoted to their hobbies, if both of them have different hobbies and do not talk to each other enough, they will get lonely and choose to do “different things in the same room” or “same things in the same room” more often than not.
When I tell them that we are playing games in different rooms from each other, they are sometimes a bit surprised. And when I tell them that we are in different rooms, even when not playing games, just connecting a call, they are quite likely to be surprised. They also worry. However, just because we are not together in real life does not mean that our relationship is bad. In fact, it has even gotten better in terms of our personalities. I believe there are many ways to communicate with each other. As an example, I have introduced the Saito family’s style.
Even in the office, “stay connected.”
And actually, mgn communicates the same way!
I use an online communication tool (virtual office) called Gather, which allows me to create large spacious meeting rooms or private rooms. mgn space as a whole is quite large, but I actually use a very small 8×6 space. The whole mgn space is quite large, but we actually use a very small space of 8 x 6. We often work in a small 8×6 space where we all gather together. (When we want to concentrate, we go to our desks.) (When we want to concentrate, we go to our desks.) It is a little different from the style where we usually work at our desks and gather together for meetings.
Before Gather, we used to work with Zoom to keep everyone connected. Of course, there were times when we wanted to focus, so we created breakout rooms to accommodate this. We have moved to a new service called Gather, which allows each person to have an avatar and to move freely around the office. This has allowed us to feel more at ease with the group.
The beauty of “staying connected” is that we can easily ask questions, contact each other, and make small talk. It is a style of communication that fills the gap between people who tend to think that being away from each other weakens their relationship.
