The world as a whole has been turned upside down by the coronavirus.

Much has changed for reporters, but much has stayed the same as well. We’re still cranking out stories, all of us from a distance at this point. We still get to tell you how those, both young and old, who are proficient with the sewing machine are making masks to help our medical personnel. We still get to tell you how distilleries have turned to sanitizer production, or how the virus has impacted restaurants, grocery stores, banks, schools and prisons.

Things have changed though. With fewer face-to-face interviews, we’re on the phone with sources now maybe more than we’ve ever been before.

The patience of those, particularly in the education sector, has been appreciated. We’ve been in contact with administrators weekly, daily in some cases, as they figure out continuity of education (the latest buzzword) plans.

“We’re flying the plane as we build it,” one told me. How true is that?

And Zoom. Who hasn’t become a Zoom expert in the past three weeks?

I’ve had the Zoom meetings. I’ve seen people’s dogs, cats, children and laughed as those who don’t often dabble in new technology frustratingly say, “how do I turn my sound off” as everyone else listens.

Luckily, I haven’t had anyone forget what he or she was doing and take the laptop to the bathroom with them like the video that went viral last month.

Conference calls are also more popular. Every state and federal agency wants to have one.

The thing about conference calls is it’s often up to the individual caller to mute their own microphone while they are not speaking on the call. There always seems to be that one caller who just can’t get the hang of it. Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken copious notes in between someone’s heavy breathing and an echo that made you want to pull your hair out.

The bottom line is we’re all trying. We have a long way to go and a lot more practice time yet to come. So mute those microphones and please remember that one of the components of video conferencing is video, and don’t lose track of your surroundings.