If you drink normally, you may be wondering, "Why not just drink - even if you have a problem? Right now, while locked down, who could that hurt?" I can answer that. Maybe online meetings are too convenient and don't provide the experience that has helped millions get sober. This mass adoption raises issues about anonymity and community. Virtual meetings can helpĪA meetings were held online previously, but never this many, with this many people attending. The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. You may have been to thousands of AA meetings or none. Now, as for why I am writing this: People need to know - maybe you or someone you are close to - that you can fire up Zoom or Google Hangouts, or Cisco WebEx, or a conference call, and spill your guts to a meeting, or just sit quietly listening. I'm doing so under a pseudonym to protect my anonymity, and to protect AA from the possibility of seeming like I speak for the program. My employer, Business Insider, asked if I would like to write a piece myself. When I posted on social media about the wealth of online meetings now available - there are hundreds - reporters from news outlets approached me. There are meetings in China, Italy, Spain, and New Orleans - seemingly everywhere the virus has been, and many places where its effect is just beginning to be felt. A videoconference meeting doesn't really take place in any one location, of course - unless that location is the cloud.īut groups based all over the world are hosting their meetings online, with their core members and using their format. The data being shared on Zoom meetings has boomed by an estimated 2,000%. I "went to" the meetings on video conferencing apps, which have been a phenomenon of the COVID-19 lockdowns. And on Wednesday I went to one here in San Francisco. So on Tuesday night I went to an AA meeting in New York and one in Seattle.
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