I've Unlocked the Secret to Making First Dates (Mostly) Bearable

Earlier this year, Zoom announced a Byzantine policy change that, if I thought about it at all when it happened, I probably would have expected to have almost no impact on my life: One-on-one video calls, which had previously been free and unrestricted for all non-paying users of its platform, would now have a 40-minute time limit just like group calls. A bummer for thrifty Zoom power users, perhaps, but at the time, I was blessed to live an existence of only sporadic Zooming. Then a few months ago I had occasion to start using Zoom a little more frequently. I would love to leave the reasons for this sudden Zoomassaince vague and retain one emotional support shred of dignity, but there's no real way to explain the rest without disclosing the following: I had decided it was time to "get back out there" and was using Zoom to go on video dates. After meeting and chatting with people on dating apps, I would suggest we talk on video before actually getting together in person, et violà: video date.