The Virtual Event Dropout Exception
After the second virtual event dropout, avoidance becomes the approved way to remain technically available.
If virtual event dropout had not happened this year, consider the alternative.
Someone registers for an online event and stops watching once another tab becomes more interesting. This is the observed behavior. The counterfactual asks what would have occurred if the person had stayed.
They would have watched the full session. They would have heard the second panel, which covered a topic adjacent to their actual work. They would have closed the tab at the end instead of forty minutes in, with a slightly different set of information and no measurable change in behavior.
First consequence. The first case of virtual event dropout changes one small decision without being discussed. A calendar invite for next month's webinar receives a hesitation before acceptance. The hesitation is not named. The registration happens anyway, carrying the implicit understanding that attendance is now provisional.
Second consequence. After repetition, other people begin adjusting their behavior around virtual event dropout. Event organizers note declining watch time. Someone emails a recap. The recap arrives in an inbox that contains four other recaps from events that week, none of which changed behavior either.
Third consequence. Eventually virtual event dropout acquires an unwritten enforcement system that everyone denies creating. Attending online events becomes a credential rather than an activity. The credential is cited in conversations. Nobody verifies the credential. The system functions adequately.
The relevant absurd rule governing this behavior states: any digital burden may remain permanent if dismissing it takes less effort than fixing its source. The open tab costs nothing to close. Closing it costs the mild administrative discomfort of acknowledging the abandonment. The discomfort is deferred by leaving the tab open. The tab joins eleven others.
The tool was supposed to save attention. It created another thing that demands attention. This outcome was predictable in approximately 2020. By December 2022, it required no prediction; it was simply what virtual events were.
Staying would not have changed this. The counterfactual has a known result.
The above analysis assumes good faith on the part of the original registration.