Future

Text chatrooms and instant messengers were upgraded into audio conferences with (mind-numbing) presentations, and then swiftly moved into virtual meetings with video and the tools needed to manage large-scale participant interaction. These collaborative platforms, once reserved for serious business, have now found their place among many more occasions outside of the corporate boardrooms. Virtual tours, philosophical discussions, town meetings, and even just groups of pandemic socially starved friends have found the new platforms easy enough to use for more casual occasions.