ABSTRACT Regulations to contain the spread of COVID-19 have affected corporations, institutions, and individuals to a degree that most people have never seen before. Information systems researchers have initiated a discourse on information technology’s role in helping people manage this situation. This study informs and substantiates this discourse based on an analysis of a rich dataset: Starting in March 2020, we collected about 3 million tweets that document people’s use of web-conferencing systems (WCS) like Zoom during the COVID-19 crisis. Applying text-mining techniques to Twitter data and drawing on affordance theory, we derive five affordances of and five constraints to the use of WCS during the crisis. Based on our analysis, our argument is that WCS emerged as a social technology that led to a new virtual togetherness by facilitating access to everyday activities and contacts that were “locked away” because of COVID-19-mitigation efforts. We find that WCS facilitated encounters that could not have taken place otherwise and that WCS use led to a unique blending of various aspects of people’s lives. Using our analysis, we derive implications and directions for future research to address existing constraints and realise the potentials of this period of forced digitalisation.

中文翻译：

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几乎在一起——网络会议系统如何在 COVID-19 危机期间实现新的虚拟团结

摘要 遏制 COVID-19 传播的法规对公司、机构和个人的影响达到了大多数人以前从未见过的程度。信息系统研究人员发起了一场关于信息技术在帮助人们管理这种情况方面的作用的讨论。这项研究基于对丰富数据集的分析为这一论述提供了信息和证实：从 2020 年 3 月开始，我们收集了大约 300 万条推文，这些推文记录了人们在 COVID-19 危机期间使用 Zoom 等网络会议系统 (WCS)。将文本挖掘技术应用于 Twitter 数据并借鉴可供性理论，我们得出了危机期间 WCS 使用的五个可供性和五个限制。根据我们的分析，我们的论点是，WCS 是作为一种社交技术出现的，它通过促进对因 COVID-19 缓解措施而“锁定”的日常活动和联系人的访问，导致了新的虚拟团结。我们发现 WCS 促进了原本不可能发生的相遇，并且 WCS 的使用导致了人们生活各个方面的独特融合。通过我们的分析，我们为未来的研究得出了启示和方向，以解决现有的限制并实现这个强制数字化时期的潜力。