Apple's new video reactions are making therapy awkward

- the struggle of everyone moving to remote work

- the perceived inability of the older generation to keep up

- the perceived ridiculousness of some of the features tech companies were including to try to win the arms race (even though as the article correctly points out this particular feature is decades old, it symbolized a wider trend)

- a somewhat humorous spin on all of the above

And lawyers were all doing their calls from wherever they were. Often in their cars. One lawyer doing his court appearances while shopping at Whole Foods.

It takes something that would otherwise be an irregular and stressful chore and makes it predictable and pleasant and something I look forward to -- and that helps make therapy a useful tool where I can pick things to work on, process how I'm doing, and plan next steps on a regular basis.

I also think it's worth noting that the point of therapy is not really to form or reinforce a friendship with a therapist? This isn't like a long distance romantic or platonic relationship, my therapist is not a buddy. Therapy is a tool. I am not trying to form an emotional connection with my therapist; my therapist is there to help me process and plan and work on parts of my life that I want to improve. That's not to say that the human part of therapy isn't important, but it's important because of how it services that goal.

A therapist is not a substitute for other human interaction, it's designed to be a one-way relationship. A therapist should not be the primary way that anyone is fulfilling their needs for human intimacy or vulnerability; what a therapist can do is help you identify if you're not meeting those needs and help you form an actionable plan for you to meet them better in your regular life.

You seem to have a problem with projection. Have you considered seeing a therapist for this problem? If in-person therapy is inaccessible to you, have you considered teletherapy? It has benefits over traditional therapy, especially for those struggling with mental illnesses like agoraphobia or depression. Depression, an insidious disease, makes it hard to even get out of bed and off Netflix. Teletherapy is able to help in those cases as it is accessible without leaving bed or the house. I hope we can agree that some help is better than no help.

Even if a couple lives near each other, I could totally imagine 1 or both in the relationship thinking in-person therapy is too dire an action to take but telehealth seems more doable. Better some therapy than none right? It could also be that in-person therapy is significantly more expensive than what a couple is able/willing to pay.

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Why not Facetime?

For what it’s worth the lighting and background blur effects are really good, much better than the tuning built into Zoom. I’m leaving the reactions on too for the comedy for now but I’ll probably turn them off eventually.

For me, apparently I like to stick out my thumb and then index finger, when I say "first (second, third)", which triggers thumbs up first and baloons second. Really? Totally unhelpful and awkward.

I think these are completely different things.

If you still don't understand: this feature and setting used to not exist. Now it does. And it's on by default. So, it has been turned on for everyone.

This is a thing that used to not exist, and now it exists for everyone using this OS. And they will not know what it is or how to turn it off unless they are told by someone else.

One day, you get into your car and start driving. But the horn honks whenever you press on the accelerator. An angry drivers rolls down their window and yells at you: "What are you, stupid? The car company went into all of the cars last night and modified them. You need to open the trunk and disconnect the 'honk while accelerating wire'! Jeeze, how can you be so clueless?"