Seriously, I hate video calls generally... frankly, even if you're not looking down, they're rarely flattering, and in many cases people look downright dreadfu

Seriously, I hate video calls generally... frankly, even if you're not looking down, they're rarely flattering, and in many cases people look downright dreadful. I don't want to stare at someone's ugly mug for 30 minutes when I could just be having a nice conversation (and it's not like I can really look away, because they'll notice). Not to mention the reverse: with video, all of a sudden, I have to care how I look, what I'm wearing, what's visible in the background, etc. Gah, what a pain. So while there are definitely positive aspects to video calls, and it's great that they're an option, no way should they be the default, either technically (the default state of the app) or "societally" (i.e., what people expect, with audio-only being taken as a sign of something suspicious). One reason I don't use Google hangouts more often is simply that: it defaults to video, and requires specific action to turn that off. Don't do that shit.