Facebook Live, Watch Party, and Zoom Meetings - Revolutionizing Communications
By Faiza Zia Khan
Newport Beach, CA
In the post-COVID-19 world movie theatres had become an ancient relic. Due to the social distancing guidelines certain places were deemed COVID-19 hotspots and unfortunately movie theatres were on top of the list.
One of the most popular activities for friends was to get together and watch a movie at the local theatre. Ordering a huge tub of buttery popcorn to munch on while watching a sappy movie, and sipping on a large icy cold drink full of sugar with it was such an unhealthy combination, yet so tempting that it almost felt ritualistic.
Even though California had mildly reopened there was no further guidance on the reopening of movie theatres as they remained temporarily closed to keep everyone safe. With the advent of live streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu among others available in the comfort of our homes, there was a downward shift in the attendance of theatre-goers, as they switched to watching movies on their devices at home or on-the-go.
Another great hangout with friends was the weekend movie-night where a group of like-minded people got together at someone’s home and watched a movie of choice together. Present day any social activity in a small space is impossible. What if you want to watch a movie with a group of friends but cannot get together physically? How do you watch a video together if your friends are not in the same city? Perhaps you want to watch a movie with your friends in Anaheim but live in Newport Beach and are social-distancing. There is no need to be melancholic about it. In the old fashioned way this was possible by playing the same video on your own individual devices, then talk about it via phone, or a chat app. That is workable but takes away from the genuine feeling of watching it in conjunction with each other.
Sometime back Facebook launched its video-on-demand service in the United States which is commonly known as Facebook Watch. The service became available to all users globally, but did not gain as much popularity as it would have hoped. In all honesty, pre-pandemic no one paid too much attention to this new feature. Post-pandemic millions of people resorted to Facebook Watch and jumped on the “Facebook Watch Party” platform with so much excitement that it became a trending, hipster way of watching movies, videos, tik-toks, and concerts together while self-isolating.
What exactly is a Facebook watch party? It is a Facebook feature enabling shared viewing experience where the participants can watch and comment on Facebook videos in real time. All this interaction and co-watching of the video happens on a single screen of Facebook with a group of friends in real time. When a watch party is created those who are in the group can watch the same video, comment on it, and interact with each other at the same time.
Facebook Watch Party is like a playlist of videos where participants are not limited to a single video alone. Facebook allows the feature to add multiple videos to the watch party that are queued to play one after another. There is flexibility to add or remove videos after creating the watch party and can be kept archived to access later, if needed. However, watch party uses old Facebook videos that already exist on the platform and creates a live session for old videos. With so many options Facebook Watch Party revolutionized the face of movie-watching forever.
Similarly, Facebook Live is another feature where a new live video is captured and posted to the news feed in real time. The riots in Los Angeles, California were captured real time and people sitting in the protection of their own homes watched protests evolve from peaceful to violent in a matter of minutes. The looting of shops in Minnesota and the turmoil transpiring from the protester/police encounters is forever immortalized on social media platforms.
Facebook live streams, Instagram stories, Tik-toks, and Twitter all had play-by-play coverage streaming live on social media as protesters clashed and mobbed. At the same time Facebook live is also used to cover happy events such as weddings, birthdays, or adventures for those who are not present in real time. As the video is streaming live the audiences can like, comment, or even leave voice messages for the event as it is happening. This provides a life-like experience for those watching without physically being there and people do not miss out on important life-events.
Two significant celebratory occasions breezed past us while we were social- distancing pandemic style. Eid-ul-Fitr and Memorial Day came on the same weekend and there was no social interaction allowed for our own safety. Zoom parties became an integral part of the festivities where family and friends logged in at the same time to wish each other and share virtual sawaiyan (for Eid festivities), or a BBQ Rib (to celebrate Memorial Day). Previously, Zoom was an underutilized communications platform where it was strictly used for businesses and in professional settings to host audio-conferencing, webinars, and meetings. The ease of using the Zoom app allows anyone at any time to have a zoom happy hour, a family discussion with loved ones, or a “just because” chat with a group of friends. The trend changed from zoom meetings to zoom parties and zoom links were sent out to celebrate graduations, baby showers, and birthdays alike.
Zoom Video Communications shares skyrocketed even in this market of global economic downturn. These modern-day communication technologies became a Messiah for those going through the pandemic who were socially-distanced but did not feel alone. It seems that these communication technologies are here to stay even after we have safely navigated away from the pandemic, the protests, and the curfews to commemorate happier, healthier times in the sunny days to come.
(Faiza Zia Khan holds a master’s in journalism degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has collaborated with news media outlets including Global National and actively volunteers for several community investment projects for the Red Cross, United Way and the Breast Cancer Foundation)
