When you log into a Zoom meeting, what do you choose as your backdrop? I’ve been participating in online classes through Zoom, all to do with literature, and I’ve noticed that almost everyone has a bookcase in the background. You can see that in this screenshot, just about (I’ve cut out names and faces, of course):

I have lots of books too, but wherever I sit in my home isn’t conducive to displaying my books and taking part in Zoom at the same time. It doesn’t matter, obviously, but it gave me an idea for experimenting with virtual backgrounds.

The virtual background facility in Zoom lets you upload a picture and use that as your backdrop. That’s why some people look like they’re on the moon, on a beach, under water, or having a psychedelic experience. I decided to have a book case as my background.

You can see that in the picture above. Here is another bookcase background:

And here is another one:

There are two aspects of this sort of thing that I find interesting. The first is that selecting a realistic backdrop is an example of fake news. When taking part in the video, I could have been in the bathroom (I wasn’t), sitting on an unmade bed (I wasn’t) or in the middle of a rubbish dump (I wasn’t). Nobody would know any different unless they were paying very close attention: I don’t have a green screen, so when I move a halo effect appears around my head and shoulders.

The second interesting aspect is another example of fake news, which is this: the bookcase in the background to me in the meeting photo isn’t even my bookcase. I downloaded the photo from a free photo website called Pixabay. The picture was taken by Lubos Houska and offered on a CC0 licence — meaning that anyone can use it for any purpose and without attribution.

Is having a virtual background cheating in a sense? And is having a virtual background that looks like your own but isn’t really, cheating even more?

If you found this article interesting, why not subscribe to my newsletter, Terry Freedman’s Books Bulletin?